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NYTimes.com: Panama birth raises “natural born citizen” question

NYTimes.com: 1 in every 100 U.S. Adults In Prision

CNN.com: The 44th President’s $4 Trillion Headache

I found this the other day.

 The other day on his show Rush Limbaugh made the point that our failure to elect conservatives is because we failed to enunciate our values, to teach them, their meaning. The “why” we do things the way we do. I believe that to be true.

Sure, lets get behind McCain for now. But let us not also forgot we have a job to do: to re-build the party to remain true to its core-values. That must be our task going forward, it is the only way we can truly retain the meaning that made the party so great.

If only it where that easy……

The story, here.

To:	Team McCain
Re:	Wrapping Up the Nomination

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Last night, after our strong victories in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC, I put together an analysis of the state of the race for the Republican nomination.  Including the delegates won last night, John McCain is now close to securing the number of delegates needed to be the presumptive Republican nominee.  In addition, it is now mathematically impossible for Mike Huckabee to win enough delegates to secure the Republican nomination; there simply aren’t enough delegates left at stake for him to win.  Take a look at the following chart:

Until John McCain secures 1,191 delegates, we must campaign aggressively for the Republican nomination, and that requires additional resources in some of the most populous states in the country.  We cannot turn our attention to the Democrats and their enormous war chests until this nomination is secure, and we cannot accomplish that goal without your additional help.

Thank you for being part of Team McCain, for being with the campaign through thick and thin.  We’ve won some exciting contests over the last two months, but the challenge is not over – we must continue to spread John McCain’s conservative message of lowering taxes, strengthening our economy, winning the war in Iraq, and fighting radical Islamic extremists.  There is a lot of work ahead, but as John McCain has noted, there has never been an election where the choices between the two parties will be so stark.  Please help us right now with your most generous contribution.

Sincerely,

Rick Davis
Campaign Manager

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As you can see by the math, the debate is over. McCain is our guy. Getting behind him now at least gives a smidgen of hope that he will take up some of our issues.

 

While Conservatives learn to, ‘live with’ McCain as their nominee, another issue is about to take shape: the realization that a Presidential election is not just about solving today’s issues, but also making sure that we have a clear vision about what we want our nation to accomplish, and thusly, our President.

It is becoming abundantly clear to me that despite the Conservative movement failure to elect a true social conservative there still lies ripe opportunities for the Republican agenda to advance.

I will point you to this story in today’s NYTimes.com. 

Simply put, the elephant in the room that both parties are equally responsible for is the ballooning federal budget. We can talk universal health care, the war in Iraq or NSA wiretap violations all you want, but unless a party emerges to challenge the current budget orthodoxy we will be left without a horse to pull the cart. There simply won’t be the horse to the proverbial government.

There may well be one ‘benefit’ to the McCain nomination: the liberal press is willing to embrace this Republicans eye for tax cuts. We have elected the man who has stabbed us in the back over and over and over again, but hot damn, at least the NYTimes is willing to listen to his fiscal policy!

For the GOP base, many of whom still are vehemently loyal to President Bush, many will be willing to heed his call to unify behind the GOP front-runner.

I talked with one of my Idaho State Representatives yesterday at a GOP function. His passioned argument is this, “getting behind McCain now will allow us time to heal before the election. Hillary and Barak should still be fighting then, in the mean time we can develop real answers for the challenges that lie agenda”. In other words, get over it now so we can have the most concise Republican agenda mapped out.

The theory is this: we get behind McCain now. Heal our wounds and infighting. Develop our ideas for the future, ideas that are consistent with lower taxes, less government and family values. By focusing on the Federal waste in the form of earmarks, budget deficits, unfunded mandates and bureaucratic regulations.

Meanwhile the Democrats are in a state of virtual ‘civil war’.

Now tell me, all things aside, isn’t getting behind our party’s Democratically elected nominee in our own best interest? Especially considering the Presidents, Congress and the GOP’s public approval ratings? Do we really want to  lose on issues like the War On Terror, balancing the federal budget, constitutional Supreme Court appointments because we are fighting over who is the most conservative?

By accepting John McCain now, Libertarian and Conservative Republicans can position themselves with the best possible chance to get the party to take up their key issues in the next election.

And that, my friends, is a benefit the Socialists and Atheists on the Democratic side will not have while they squabble over KKKlinton or Osama.

Just food for thought. And yes, I am still voting Ron Paul in the Idaho Primary elections on May 27th. But that doesn’t mean things should have already been long decided by then.