◼ There still exists a possibility that, come Jan. 20, 2013, we could have a Republican Senate and House, and a Republican president. - Patrick J. Buchanan/Human Events
But there is also a possibility that a Goldwater-Rockefeller-type family bloodletting could sunder the party and kick it all away.
America is bored with Barack Obama. The young and the minorities are still with him but exhibit none of the excitement or enthusiasm of 2008.
Moreover, we have been through three years of 23-25 million unemployed or underemployed. Our national debt is now larger than the national economy, approaching Italian proportions. The class warfare rhetoric is beginning to grate. A huge majority believes the nation is on the wrong course.
Who wants four more years of this?
Democratic hopes for 2012 hence hinge on that party's ability to portray the Republican alternative as unacceptable if not intolerable. And the Republicans have begun to play into that script.
The GOP field of candidates suddenly seems headed to a finale that will call to mind the last scene of Hamlet, the dead and dying everywhere, but no Fortinbras to restore order in the house.
◼ Complacent Conservatism Is Allowing America To Slide Into The Abyss - John Hawkins/TownHall
Conservatism is more relevant than ever to American life, but much of the conservative movement has grown complacent, lazy, rigid, and out-of-touch. Too many conservatives went to D.C. to make a difference and hung around to make a few bucks. Too many conservatives have given up on moving America to the right and are now content to just hold the line so we don't move any further backwards. That's one of the dirty little secrets on the Right; real grassroots Tea Party conservatism FRIGHTENS a lot of conservatives, especially the ones in D.C. It's not so much because they disagree with the sentiment, but because they've become so demoralized that they instinctively recoil from any meaningful effort to move the country to the right, rather than just stopping the movement to the left.
