Questioning the Conventional Wisdom

 It has been a long-held belief among dedicated Republican pundits, that if the conservative vote is split between two candidates, the Democrat wins.  This political axiom was exemplified in the 1992 and 1996 Presidential races when the conservative vote was split in both election years, handing Bill Clinton a victory with 43% and 49% of the vote respectively.

The logic of this conventional wisdom has proven to be sound in most normal political environments.  The current political environment is anything but normal.  In the last two years there has been a realignment of political values.  Political ideology has become more important than party affiliation.  An increasing number of Americans are no longer asking themselves, ‘Am I a Republican, or a Democrat?’, but rather, ‘Am I a conservative, or a progressive?’.  This is a huge problem for Democrats who have spent the last two years branding themselves as ‘progressives’, both explicitly, and implicitly.

For the first time the conventional wisdom regarding the consequences of splitting the conservative vote no longer holds true.  In both the Alaska and Florida US Senate Races, the Democrat is far behind in three-way races where the independent candidate is a former Republican candidate.  In the Alaska Senate race, Miller (R) is polling at 38%, Murkowski at 36%, and McAdams (D) at 22%.  In the Florida Senate race, Rubio (R) is polling at 42%, Crist (I) at 30%, and Meek (D) at 21%.

The Democrats have badly damaged their party by embracing the progressive label and governing accordingly.  Now that the ‘progressive genie’ is out of the bottle, it is going to be very difficult for Democrats to try to put it back.  American progressives, who just held the biggest progressive rally in American history this last Saturday, will not allow them to waffle now on ‘progressive’ commitments that they have made.  The Dems are ‘stuck between a rock and a hard place’, they cannot go forward, and they cannot go back.

The Republicans on the other hand, have been gifted by their Democratic rivals, with a tremendous opportunity.  The question is, can the Republicans make the most of it?, or, will they fall back into the same old ‘RINO’ governing pattern that lead to their defeat in 2006?  Time will tell, but the way it is looking right now, let’s just say, I am less than optimistic.

Voters Trust the Republicans More

Despite an all out campaign by the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats to convince voters that ‘D’ is for ‘drive’ and ‘R’ is for reverse, voters none-the-less now trust the Pachyderms more than the Jackasses on all 10 top issues, according to a new Rasmussen poll.

Issue	Democrats	Republicans
Education	40%	41%
Health Care	40%	48%
Iraq	40%	43%
Economy	39%	47%
Social Security	38%	44%
Government Ethics	38%	40%
National Security	37%	49%
Afghanistan	36%	43%
Taxes	36%	52%
Immigration	35%	44%

The most interesting part of this poll is the results for the issue of ‘government ethics’.  Democrats won in large measure by painting Republicans as hopelessly corrupt.  Obama ran on the promise to “clean up Washington” and Speaker Pelosi pledged that her Congress would be “the most ethical Congress in history.”  Even though Rassmussen reports that “more than one-in-five voters (22%) are still not sure which party to trust more on ethics issues”, the Republicans are edging out the Dems on that issue.

The Democrats are in real trouble.  The voters have realized that they have been sold a ‘lemon’, and no amount of salesmanship is likely to alleviate their ‘buyers remorse’.

Uncivil Discourse

Tennessee State Democrat legislator Janis Baird Son­tany insulted her Republican women colleagues with a remark at last Saturday’s Democratic breakfast.

“You have to lift their skirts to find out if they are women. You sure can’t find out by how they vote.”

Wait,…what?

To some extent, I can understand her point of view.  No, really, I can.   I have often wondered if Democrat men were actually men, because you certainly could not tell by the way they capitulate to America’s enemies.  I have never suggested, however, that they needed to drop their trousers and prove that they actually had testicles.

I’m not sure that Ms. Son­tany has much room to talk, aesthetically speaking that is; as Lou Costello once said, “she’s either a very ugly woman, or a very pretty man.” That could certainly be said of most liberal women, but when it comes to conservative women, gender identification is never a realistic issue.

‘HOO-RAH!’

H/T: Malkin

Sophomoric Moron

Carly Fiorina, who just this last Tuesday won the Republican Senatorial nomination to unseat Barbara Boxer(D), was caught on an open mic dissing Meg Whitman, Sean Hannity, and Barbara Boxer’s hair.  Fiorina was all miked up and waiting to go on air at CNN when she began blithering about just about anything that popped into, what apparently is, a rather vacant expanse between her ears.

See the complete video here.

How dumb is this?  She is a Republican candidate waiting to go on air at CNN.  ‘CNN’!  Not exactly friendly territory.  How could she not have had the presence of mind to recognize where she was?  If she just had to put her foot in her mouth, perhaps she should have done so literally, and wiggled her toes patiently until the ‘on air’ lights came on.