“The only blood I see…”

You need to see an Opthamologist!

(*GRIN*) (Com’on… that was funny…) (*CHUCKLE*)

BILL

It appears the new Democrat mantra is that the Republican party is a minority party.

If Obama can’t get the economy turned around soon, he will get bounced in 2012, or he really is the Messiah.

this is just tooooo funny. A tiny minority of a now tiny minority. You tell ‘em! Good luck parlaying that 20% voter registration into a majority anytime soon.

Cheney blew away Edwards in their debate in 2004. There is no doubt among people that Cheney is extremely intelligent. When he says Obama is a disaster on national security, people do listen. That’s why liberals are bitching about him and telling him to shut up. As Limbaugh pointed out, why tell the man to shut up if he’s so unpopular and hurts the Republican cause?

Nancy Pelosi seems to be one in a tailspin these days. Seems like she’s bit of a torture freak. She and Cheney may have something in common.

The only blood I see Limbaugh and Cheney drawing is the continual spiraling of the GOP into a further tailspin of alienation from the majority electorate. It seems, like many in the base of the GOP movement, you don’t seem to see the continual writing on the wall. As long as Rush and Cheney are the face of the Republican Party, it will continue to be a minority party. If you’re happy with that, then that’s fine.

Limbaugh was liked by both men….Frum uses them as a prop against Limbaugh, because they are dead and can’t refute Frum.

I don’t think Frum’s politics are even close to that of Buckley’s or Reagan’s. Nobody doubts Rush’s conservativism.

We have a problem in the Republican party when liberal Republicans like Frum, a tiny minority in the party, want to dictate to the majority, the conservative base, who we should listen to and who we should not.

It would seem to me that Frum would go join the Democrat party…he seems to accept their entire agenda except for their dovish approach on national security. Frum isn’t even a fiscal conservative…he’s for carbon taxes and he seems opposed to tax cuts.

One big factor why Republicans lost the past election is the Iraq War, and Frum was for that war big time. Liberals see Frum as a warmonger neo-con, so I think if the Republican party is going to go left as Frum wishes, we may want to go with somebody that didn’t support the Iraq war.

“I tend to think Rush is normally right on issues.”

(*NOD*)

“A Republican party without Rush or his audience is unthinkable.”

(*NOD*)

“I tend to think Sean Hannity is neither clever nor informed…”

(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

Exactly right.

“Similiarly, Mark Levin is brilliant but uses his show to call people names.”

(*SIGH*) (*NOD*)

Yep.

“A chief problem with Republicans is their inability to talk to the general public. They could take a page from Rush on this.”

DEAD ON! BRAVO! EXACTLY RIGHT!

I think there’s a lot of jealousy of Rush by those who… er… got picked last for their elementary school playground games.

(*SHRUG*)

Sure… Limbaugh is an entertainer – a brilliant entertainer – but he’s also an extremely bright guy intellectually speaking. If he wasn’t… I wouldn’t be saying he is. (*SMILE*)

“Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney are highly unpopular but their articulate criticisms of the Obama administration are drawing blood.”

Well… on the surface I’m not arguing… but to reiterate a point I’ve brought up on prior occasions, the vast majority of Rush’s “unpopularity” is based upon caricature, reflective partisanship, and most of all… ignorance.

Let’s put it this way: For the sake of argument let’s assume the “independent” broad center of American political/economic/social thought is roughly “center Right.” (For those who insist on arguing… substitute “just plain center” if it makes you feel better.)

Let’s say you took a representative sampling of “true” Independents, “Reagan Democrats” to “Obama Republicans.” Imagine a series of debates between Rush Limbaugh and… oh… say Al Franken… or Keith Olbermann…

Or… just imagine the test audience undertook to listen to a week’s worth of Rush Limbaugh (three hours a day) and the same for Franken or Olbermann.

(*SHRUG*)

How do you think Limbaugh’s negatives would test vs. Franken’s or Olbermann’s?

Of course it’s conjecture… but my guess is that in terms of shifting political opinion either “Right” or “Left,” Limbaugh would wipe the floor with either champion of the Left.

Anyway… excellent points, Jjv!

BILL

I will say this, Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney are highly unpopular but their articulate criticisms of the Obama administration are drawing blood. Obama picked a Cheney favorite for Afghanistan, stopped the publication of the photos of interrorgations, and sacked the “flyover” NY guy. Moreover, Republicans have again moved into the lead in the public mind on national security (for those of you who like polls). This occurred not because these men are popular, they are not, but because they know how to spot an issue and explain it to the American people. That is something Republicans better learn.

Brudnoy was erudite, intellectual, libertarian on social issues (he was gay himself). He hated hockey and he didn’t care to discuss sports at all. And he was right-wing on other issues: He wanted small government and low taxes, he despised the Clintons, he strongly supported the War on Terror, and he thought that Massachusetts liberals had run the state into the ground. He made right-wing ideas palatable, even to a liberal state like Massachusetts.

Brudnoy passed away, and no one else since has filled his shoes.

The passage of intellectuals like Buckley and Brudnoy has left conservatism in the hands of Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber. It now sounds like Ralph Kramden, Joe the Plumber, and Archie Bunker ranting in a bar over a few drinks.