As the Nevada GOP Senate primary approaches its unpredictable conclusion, there is a potential disaster brewing for Silver State Republicans come fall. Sue Lowden, once the clear leader in the race has imploded thanks to politically asinine comments about bartering with chickens for health care. Never mind that bartering does continue to take place, when it comes to politics, such an unforced error is devastating. Moreover, Lowden’s questionable partial ownership and nondisclosure of her campaign bus has given her campaign an air of underhandedness. Add to Lowden’s woes her insider’s-insider status as the former Nevada GOP Party Chair and her past support and endorsement for Harry Reid and her veneer of formidability evaporates. As the latest polls indicate, Nevadans are walking away from Sue Lowden in droves, and Fox News reports she’s now third behind Angle and Tarkanian. Despite the backing of heavyweight GOP establishment figures, in the final analysis, Lowden is a falling star.

The bigger problem for Nevada Republicans is the possibility that many are leaving Sue’s campaign for Sharron Angle. Sure, Angle’s conservative, and she’s got the backing of both grassroots groups and political machines like the Tea Party Express, but Angle remains for many a fringe candidate with tenuous ties to Scientology and some questionable votes on spending. Her opponents, most notably Lowden, have pointed out her authorship of a bill which included the hair-brained scheme of providing massages to prison inmates. Can anyone see a Reid campaign commercial there? While Angle’s record does include some bright spots as well, the mere fact that Angle has a record at all is cause for concern in this anti-incumbency year. A four-term record in the Nevada State Assembly is sure to provide ample fodder for Reid and Democratic operatives, and Angle’s fringy style will likely prove an easy target for Reid’s well-oiled machine; a machine that’s managed to keep the sullen, liberal Majority Leader – by any measure an unappealing candidate – in office for more than 20 years. As the final vote draws near it’s clear that going with Angle is huge gamble.

The sleeper candidate in the race remains Danny Tarkanian. While Tarkanian hasn’t exactly caught fire, his quiet, consistent message and famous Nevada name have kept him in the running and amidst the unpredictability of Lowden and the quirkiness of Angle, Tarkanian looks more and more like the safe conservative choice. Tarkanian is just as conservative as Angle, he’s pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, opposed the Wall Street bailouts and focused on bringing the federal government to heel. He’s endorsed by Chuck Heath – Sarah Palin’s father and the grassroots Minuteman Project – but as an attorney and small businessman who’s never held public office before, Tarkanian comes without the baggage of a legislative record. He’s the outsider in an outsider’s year – something he grasped early as the first candidate to jump in against Reid last August when the Democrats were riding high. Going with Tarkanian has its disadvantages – Danny’s run for statewide office before, unsuccessfully – but on the other hand in doing so he’s boosted his statewide name recognition to a degree that Angle never has; most Nevada Republicans have a memory of casting their ballot for Danny Tarkanian. It helps also that every living room in the state has fond memories of watching his father, the legendary UNLV basketball coach, take the NCAA title.

Can Danny Tarkanian beat Harry Reid? If polls are any indication, yes. Tarkanian’s campaign boasts an impressive list of some 16 polls in which Tarkanian beats Reid – every poll, save one, since August 2009. While most Republicans are confident that a ham sandwich could beat Harry Reid in November, their overconfidence is just that – overconfident. Reid’s machine should not be underestimated – nor the millions upon millions of dollars in negative advertising and get out the vote efforts that will pour into Nevada to prop up the ailing Majority Leader. Reid will not go quietly, and while Angle’s upstart campaign seems to have the energy now to take on Reid, like Kentucky’s Rand Paul, personality along with her record, will likely prove far too easy to marginalize come June 9th; in the words of one respected Republican strategist, “Harry Reid will eat Sharron Angle for breakfast.”

Tarkanian may not be a dream candidate, but his quiet demeanor, constitutional focus, and stubborn determination are a good match for Reid’s own workmanlike approach to politics and the anti-government mood of the electorate. Over the course of nine months, Tarkanian has proven to be the only reliable candidate in Nevada’s GOP field, and he’s done so without the big dollars or the machine backing that has propelled his rivals. Ultimately Tarkanian is the safest option and the best candidate to take on Harry Reid this November, and should be the choice of Nevada Republicans.

These are facts, published by Fox News, buried by fearmongering lefties and redistributed by Canadians. It is a fair story that points out shortcomings of GOPers and dems. Amazing that we have to say that.

Will the people of Massachusetts vote out the bumbling fool Barney Frank already? Seriously. We do not care if you elected another Democrat (actually we do, but this is just to make a point). Franks is an idiot and makes Massachusettsians looks foolish as well.

The Bush Admin and Senator McCain warned repeatedly about Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac and what thus became the 2008 financial crisis — starting in 2002 (and actually even earlier — in the Clinton and Carter White Houses. Democrats resisted and kept to their party line, extending loans to people who couldn’t afford them — just like you would expect of socialists.

Just when it seemed the Republican Party had breathed its last breath, an amazing thing happened: the one-time fiscally conservative, small-government party of yesterday briefly re-ignited. In a vote every conservative can be proud of, the House Republicans, thanks to the efforts of new Minority Whip Eric Cantor, unanimously voted against the crippling spending bill pushed by President Obama and his big-government allies.  Of course it took the mother of all pork-barrel bills, with a crippling cost of more than $1.1 trillion that is sure to wreck the economy and drive up inflation to do it, but at least they ‘got religion’ eventually.

Now the real fight begins. If the Republican Party is to find its true voice, there needs to be a unanimous rejection of this socialist monster of a bill when it arrives in the Senate. Can we accomplish it? Will we stand united on principle? It’s up to you. Our representatives in the Senate need to hear from you, especially those most likely to abandon our core principles. You can reach them by calling the Senate Switchboard and asking to be connected (202) 224-3121 or toll free (866) 220-0044.

 If you can only make one or two calls, please start with these Senators:

• Collins, Susan
• Graham, Lindsey
• McCain, John
• Snowe, Olympia
• Voinovich, George

 The following are newly elected Republican Senators, so their predisposition toward fiscal responsibility and small government is not known.  We are certain they would benefit from hearing from you:

• Johanns, Mike
• Risch, Jim

The following are regarded as being, ‘at risk’ because of their previous support of the original bailout package (HR 1424):

• Alexander, Lamar
• Bennett, Robert
• Bond, Kit
• Burr, Richard
• Chambliss, Saxby
• Coburn, Tom
• Corker, Bob
• Cornyn, John
• Ensign, John
• Grassley, Chuck
• Gregg, Judd
• Hatch, Orrin
• Hutchison, Kay Bailey
• Isakson, Johnny
• Kyl, Jon
• Lugar, Richard
• Martinez, Mel
• McConnell, Mitch
• Murkowski, Lisa
• Specter, Arlen
• Thune, John

The following Senators are the ones we believe are least likely to vote for this irresponsible bill. We are counting on their principled opposition to fiscal irresponsibility:

• Barrasso, John
• Brownback, Sam
• Bunning, Jim
• Cochran, Thad
• Crapo, Mike
• DeMint, Jim
• Enzi, Mike
• Inhofe, Jim
• Johanns, Mike
• Roberts, Pat
• Sessions, Jeff
• Shelby, Richard
• Vitter, David
• Wicker, Roger

Abraham Lincoln once warned his fellow Americans that, “as a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” It is an axiom that still holds true. So it is on the eve of a great election that will have profound consequences for our national character that we implore our fellow citizens to remember the brave men and women who have gone before you, who have built this country from a frontier nation of 13 colonies to the great republic you see before you. We implore you to remember the vision of our founding fathers, to build a new society of strictly limited government but nearly unlimited freedom; a nation that prized natural and individual liberty over artificial, collective equality; a nation whose mission has been to foster life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

To our fellow conservatives, we entreat you in these final hours to fight as hard as you have ever fought, to mobilize and focus all your efforts toward victory, while ignoring those who would cause you to lose faith. We remind you of the stirring words of President Reagan, who believed that the success of our America – an America of limited government, personal freedom and responsibility, and one rooted firmly in the fertile soil of our God-fearing, visionary forefathers was inextricably linked to the future of all humanity: “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.” Remember the charge of our greatest leader, the father of our nation, George Washington: “It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn.”

To John McCain, a man of inestimable integrity and uncommon valor, we thank you for tireless service to this nation. You are unquestionably the better man, the greater patriot and the right leader for America at this trying moment. With you we cast our highest hopes and offer you this parting interpretation on words that have often brought encourgement to our nation :

 Sail on, Oh man of State!

Sail on, Oh warrior strong and great.

America with all Her fears

With all the hope of future years

Is hanging breathless on thy fate.

Finally, we offer our prayers to the Almighty, that He will guide our nation in this moment of historic significance. As a nation we have not always lived up to our highest ideals, but we remain a good and free people, and from our shores the light of liberty still beams out across a weary and dangerous world. May God continue to bless America and light our path forward.

This morning, the silver-tongued orator, Barack Obama told a Jacksonville, Florida audience that the Republicans were spending huge sums of money against him, “here in Ohio.” He was resoundingly booed: Obama Booed in Flordia. 

He must have been off his script for a moment. It brings up an interesting and consistent issue – that whenever Obama is off his script, we get an entirely different person, a man who thinks there are 57 or more states, a man who thinks Pennsylvanians are bitter and cling to their guns and God out of xenophobia, a man who wants to spread your wealth around to pay for his economic justice schemes, and a man who has no problem bankrupting the key energy industry of coal in order to comport with his extreme environmental agenda. Just to name a few. Remember when you go to the polls tomorrow, the real Obama has yet to show himself. We know next to nothing about this man who desires to hold the most powerful position in the world.

It was June 1940. An undefeated and many thought unstoppable Adolf Hitler rolled across the European continent. From the air, the Luftwaffe dominated the skies of Europe, and would soon lay waste the venerable and ancient English capitol. Fear gripped a British citizenry low on food, ammunition, fighting men, and spirit.  The full fury of the Bilitz was only months away, and Britain was all alone in its struggle against NAZI tyranny. In this climate of seemingly overwhelming odds, the dogged and pugnacious British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, rose before the House of Commons to deliver one of his most stirring speeches. Knowing full well the awful price of defeat, and deploying all his considerable rhetorical skill, Churchill challenged and inspired his fellow countrymen and women to fight on to the bitter end:

“We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…”

Churchill’s speech rallied the British people who fought on alone. But Churchill’s words inspired many hearts. Less than two years later and thousands of miles from the British capitol, men like Admiral John McCain were answering Churchill’s eloquent call in defense of freedom.  Rarely since those days has liberty faced such peril, but Churchill’s words have inspired many, no matter the contest or field of endeavor, to fight on. More than simply an echo of trying times, Churchill’s speech reminds us that when an important battle must be fought, it is incumbent upon each of us, individually and in unison, to go above and beyond the call of duty in pursuit of victory.

And so it is, that we find ourselves on the eve of a historic election for America. No elections are without profound consequences, but not since 1980 has America been faced with such a stark political and ideological dichotomy. John McCain is not the perfect conservative, but whatever his faults, John McCain is now all that stands between Reagan’s America and a disastrous turn toward socialism.  With Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi in charge of our Congress, and a President Obama ensconced in the Oval Office, leftist redistributionist policy will flow like water. Taxes hikes, profligate spending, and government expansion will unfold like storm clouds. The unionization of our private sector will begin in earnest and the end of the hitherto sacred secret ballot will come to pass. Our most cherished rights will be assaulted: from our freedom to express our religion, to our right to have and bear arms, to the very heart of the American spirit, the freedom of speech – which will wither under government imposed “fairness” guidelines. Our troops who have fought valiantly to secure a new future and a lasting peace in the Middle East will be undermined from home. The fight against Islamic extremism will end. The next justices on the Supreme Court will consider judicial activism their calling and judge-made law their right. Internationalism, foreign law, and sovereignty-undermining treaties will be the order of the day. Extreme environmentalism will trump all economic and business needs, and the promise of energy independence in the form of nuclear power, increased domestic oil production and natural gas will shrivel under draconian green legislation and government mandates. Like Gulliver amidst his captors, the great American juggernaut, already reeling from an economic blow of largely Democratic making, will succumb; death by 1,000 cuts. Not since the days of Carter will America have known such a malaise. The death of liberty by the hand of equality.

 But it is not a future that has to be. Hope remains.

John McCain is first to acknowledge that he is the underdog in this present contest, and many have proclaimed a McCain victory nearly impossible. Yet, with a strong final debate performance, a new sense that the American people are at last considering the true consequences of their choice in leader, and climbing poll numbers, a McCain victory remains possible. The odds are still unfavorable, and the task considerable, but in these final days, now is the time that every man and woman who cares about the hard won conservative gains of the Reagan Revolution must stand and fight. It will take more than merely voting, more than a yard sign or a bumper sticker, or a casual comment to a neighbor. It will take a sure and determined effort to mobilize every last Republican and independent vote.

In the end, it is not the media who decides our future, it is We, the People. So let us decide. Let us take our future into our own hands. In the spirit of Churchill, let us call forth every last remaining fighter. Family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues, parishioners, teammates, fellow students, and more. Even complete strangers and sometimes adversaries must be called upon and mobilized in this effort.  Ask yourself not merely what you will do come Election Day, but what you can and must do between now and then. The Left is mobilized and organized. They will be bringing to the polls thousands of voters who have never cast a ballot before.  On their side stands all the media with its long and duplicitous tentacles gripping the fountainheads of public opinion. Indeed, all the World whose interests lie in a weakened and demoralized America are willing your defeat.

So up with the rally cry! Dig in, mobilize and fight. We can win this election, and save America from a dreadful future, but only if we commit ourselves to delivering, with one resounding voice, the timeless battle cry of the victors: never surrender!

Make no mistake, the domestic and global left are salivating over the prospect of an Obama presidency.  With poll numbers trending their way, the excited, but unusually restrained and disciplined Left believes it has victory within sight. Conspiracy theorists we’re not, but many people can work independently and in a complimentary fashion if they share the same goal, and Leftists around the world are all working in one fashion or another to ensure that in less than one month, America takes a great leap forward into socialism.

As too few Americans realize, Obama is part of America’s hard Left. He is a product of Chicago’s famously dirty political machine. As Investor’s Business Daily noted,

“Obama himself began his career as a Chicago community organizer and worked on projects there influenced by Saul Alinsky. The Marxist Machiavellian of the Chicago scene advised budding revolutionaries in his 1971 book “Rules For Radicals” to conceal their radical affiliations to attain greater power.”

Obama launched his political career in the home of the unrepentant domestic anti-war terrorist, William Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, Pentagon, and tried to murder the family of New York Supreme Court Justice John Murtagh. Obama’s self described “spiritual mentor,” Jeremiah Wright is a hate-spewing, anti-American racist of the first magnitude that peddles in genocidal conspiracy theories and the avowedly Marxist black liberation theology. Wright is a close associate of both the radical left preacher Michael Phleger as well as the virulently racist and anti-Semitic Louis Farrakhan, who has referred to Obama as the “Messiah.” Obama was once counted among the ranks of the New Party, an openly socialist party, and his legislative record is farther to the left than the Senate’s only self-described socialist, Senator Bernie Sanders.

Obama’s endorsees from abroad include Cuba’s communist dictator Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, leader of Nicaragua’s socialist Sandanistas, and the FARC – Colombia’s paramilitary Marxist terrorist organization that has kidnapped and murdered hundreds of hostages including Americans. According to Governor Bill Richardson, there is “enormous support” for Obama in Hugo Chavez’s Venezula, and Obama has also been endorsed by the self-described “Islamic socialist, ” and terrorist Muammar Gaddafi.  Obama has also been endorsed by Islamists, including Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, who must see an anti-war candidate with Muslim roots as a gift from God following the presidency of George W. Bush. Indeed Obama was forced to return thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions from Palestinian donors after an investigation uncovered the fraudulent donations.

At home, Obama remains the centerpiece in a Saul Alinksy inspired movement to place a radical in the maximum position of power. No less an authority than the Communist Party USA editorialized that:

“A broad multiclass, multiracial movement is converging around Obama’s “Hope, change and unity” campaign because they see in it the thrilling opportunity to end 30 years of ultra-right rule and move our nation forward with a broadly progressive agenda.“

The direction and the intention is thus clear, but the Left has learned from its earlier failures and this time is working in a disciplined and at times coordinated fashion to ensure Obama’s election. Cognizant of the backlash that has accompanied past left-wing power grabs, and the tendency of Americans to reject radicalism, the Left is attempting to slip Obama past the American people – a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The ever-quotable Michelle Obama, a woman whose pride in her country appeared with its embrace of her radical husband disappeared from the campaign trail months ago. So did Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Jeremiah Wright, and other agitators from the civil rights industry. Quiet has been Kweisi Mfume, and restrained has been the NAACP. Gone too are the usual suspects from Hollywood: there have been no rantings from Barbara Streisand, no pronouncements from Rosie O’Donnell or Danny Glover. Absent has been Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins or Rob Reiner. Not a peep from Ben Affleck, Sean Penn, Janeane Garofalo, or Michael Moore.  The anti-war Left is also in hiding. No demonstrations from Code Pink, or media stunts from Cindy Sheehan, and decided restraint from A.N.S.W.E.R. and other groups. MoveOn.org has been uncharacteristically quiet, and we’ve heard nary a mention of George Soros. Academia is also doing its part.  William Ayers is conveniently on sabbatical, Ward Churchill has yet rear his head, and there’s been little opining by Noam Chomsky. Most helpful of all of course has been the mainstream media, which has abandoned all pretense of journalistic integrity and has covered Obama for nearly 20 months without asking any probing questions or investigating any disquieting connections, quietly burying anything negative and suppressing the most basic elements of intellectual curiosity – from missing birth certificates, to terrorist associations, to shady real estate deals, not even a single image of Obama smoking cigarettes. Anything and everything that could prove unpopular with the vast swath of America’s electorate has been left untouched or underreported.  No matter where you look, or in what forum, from Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews to Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter, the great mouthpieces of liberalism have silently left the stage and wait quietly in the tall grass as America heads to the polls.

So, as Obama’s radicalism has been concealed, it has been replaced with evidence of his widespread appeal to ordinary mainstream Americans. Thus, we see prefabricated signs proclaiming support for Obama from Catholics, clergy, and people of faith. Women and moms, and sportsmen…even Republicans have their own “for Obama” sign. Unreported rock concerts immediately precede Obama rallies to create the illusion of massive popular support, and on the Web and in print media, Obama’s team wages an aggressive effort to stifle criticism of Obama while silently but effectively placing positive images and articles about their man at every turn. No, the American Left has learned its lesson. Their man Barack has a better chance of being elected if his radical connections and his appeal to Leftists are concealed. Rather, as would befit adherents of Saul Alinksy, it is more effective a strategy to wrap Obama in a cloak or ordinary, moderate mainstream electability, create a sense of self-reinforcing popular support, and quietly carry him over the finish line. A finish line much easier to attain thanks to coordinated efforts by groups like ACORN, who are attempting to steal the election for their Community Organizer-in-Chief, and aided by well placed Democratic sympathizers in voter sensitive positions such as county registrar offices and even secretary of state positions.

Obama’s campaign has been a textbook example of how to sneak a liberal into power, and should it triumph, it will not only mean the most Left-wing, inexperienced president in our nation’s history, but will evidence a stunning triumph of radical socialism over its heretofore most stubborn adversary – the American people.

Don’t kid yourself…John McCain just put all his chips on the table and rolled the dice.

Over the past many months, McCain’s team had skillfully underscored the natural impressions of Americans – that Barak Obama was the lightweight in the race; the candidate of risk.  Now, with a single stroke McCain has undercut his most effective argument. He has weakened his case for wisdom and experience, and elevated a one-term governor of a small-population state based on her gender.

McCain had plenty of safe choices. Choices that would have bolstered Americans’ inherent understanding of McCain’s competency and ability; choices that would have underscored the longstanding notion that whatever gimmick the Democrats try, the Republican Party remains the serious one.

With the electorate evenly split, McCain’s first job was to pick a competent running mate that would not undermine his standing, and would reassure voters that should something happen to the oldest man ever to be nominated for president, a competent, experienced leader, ready to serve as commander-in-chief in a time of war, was waiting in the wings.

The former Miss Congeniality, and hockey mom from “the last frontier” is a bizarre choice.

McCain’s pick today has all the hallmarks of a political gimmick and a hail-Mary pass. While it is likely to excite some conservatives, his choice will refocus the entire campaign away from Obama’s status as a political neophyte and will reshuffle the risk calculus in the favor of the increasingly familiar, and always-eloquent Obama. With Biden on the ticket, Obama has lessened the sense that he poses a serious danger to the electorate. McCain’s selection by contrast is likely to shake voters and cast uncertainty on the wisdom and safety of a McCain presidency.

With competent and proven individuals waiting in the wings (such as Governor Mitt Romney), the selection of Sarah Palin is a most unfortunate choice. 

John McCain may have just lost the 2008 election…cue the hurricane.

Obama’s “citizen of the world” speech in front of an adoring crowd of German leftists is likely to go over with many American voters like a lead Zeppelin. Indeed, the audacity of his presidential-style trip is nothing short of galling, and it is sure to backfire with many who see a glaring incongruence between Obama’s accomplishments and his magisterial pretensions.

Europeans of course are delighted by their chance to hopefully influence an American election. The chance to be relevant in the impenetrable mind of the American voter is exciting enough, but helping to nudge what would be America’s first leftist president into office is so alluring as to drive 200,000 Germans into the streets to see a standard Obama stump speech, laden with pilfered lines from Kennedy and Reagan with a hint of Lincoln, and peppered with self-evident untruths such as, “I speak to you not as a candidate for president…”

American Jason Farago writes in the UK’s leftist newspaper, The Guardian, “Four years ago John Kerry’s halfhearted call for an America “respected in the world” fell flat with voters who thought it was better to be feared than loved. But for a nation eager to regain its standing, a bit of American idolatry across the pond might be no bad thing.” What many Europeans, and nearly the whole of the elitist, socialist, press corps (both in Europe and America) fails to grasp, is that America remains a center-right nation: we don’t agree with Europe’s vision of a politically correct, state-dominated, enviro-hysterical, wealth-redistributing, pacifistic, equality-uber-alles society. We prize liberty over equality, we prize action over incessant fruitless diplomacy, we value small government over large, and we prize core values over international geniality. We cling to our guns and (Christian) God too, which makes us pariahs in a secular humanist Europe more at ease with accommodating Islamic-separatism under the guise of multiculturalism than defending its own native heritage and institutions.

Farago muses: “We know that these past years have been bad if not disastrous – an astonishing 78% of us think something’s out of joint – but the American abroad must confront the cataclysm of the Bush era on a near-daily basis…” Disastrous? That 50 million people living under the worst forms of dictatorship should have been set on the path to freedom and consensual self-government? That the Arab world should have its first chance at democracy, after thousands of years of tribalism and dictatorship (and European imperialism)? Bush’s ineloquence is tough to bear, but is it cataclysmic? Is his desire for action rather than duplicitous diplomacy so fundamentally abhorrent? What kind of American leader would people like Farago and our European friends prefer? One who engages in meaningless diplomacy ad infinitum, (as only Europeans can), while the world’s anti-democratic forces gather strength and arms? One who rails against tyranny but lifts not a finger to stop it, like Germany? One who adopts and preaches about lofty environmental goals with no intention of keeping his commitments, like the EU’s leaders? Talk is cheap…which is why European opinion is so little valued in the Bush Administration and throughout America, and why so many Americans will look upon Obama’s trip and his embrace by Europe with due skepticism.

Why do 78% of us think something’s out of joint? Note to Europe: it isn’t our sense of a lack of popularity at the morally bankrupt United Nations. It’s primarily a slowing economy, marked by high gas prices, coupled with war fatigue.  To put it in a European context, if Winston Churchill can be summarily tossed from office after winning WWII, is it surprising that George W. Bush and his potential GOP successor should not meet with similar domestic challenges as the Iraq war nears a potential end?

As for why America and Bush remain unpopular in Europe, and why Obama should conversely be so praised, it is only natural. It is because the European state-run press is comprised nearly entirely of leftists who preach to an audience weaned on secular Marxist theories, laden with a compelling sense of geopolitical impotence seasoned with rank jealousy and a haughty sense of unfounded cultural superiority. How can Europe, they wonder, continue to take a back seat to those dumb, fat, God-loving, gun-toting, burger-eating, American blowhards that can only muster a merci bocu while dumping their tourists dollars in Europe? So long as America remains strong, independent and essentially conservative, the Left will continue to hate her, and so will leftist Europe. An American president popular in Europe? We should hate to see it. An American presidential candidate so warmly embraced? We should know to fear it.

John McCain is a man without a message. An undisputed war hero, a true leader on Iraq policy, a veteran Senate compromiser, McCain has the resume…what he lacks is a message that can connect to voters, and give them a rationale to go to the polls in November. As with any good slogan, it must be short and convey a clear idea – reflective of overall policy aims. Gopublius humbly submits for the use of the McCain campaign, the slogan: “Let McCain Fix It!”

Barack Obama’s message is clear: change. However, even as slogans go, it’s particularly meaningless, since change is inevitable no matter which candidate is chosen, while the indefiniteness of the verb connotes neither a positive nor negative transformation. Like Obama himself, “change” is obtuse, and given Obama’s lack of experience, his contradictory and ever-evolving messages, and the negative aspects about his religious and personal affiliations, it is increasingly derided as meaningless.

By contrast, the whole idea of a McCain presidency seems inherently associated with the idea that the veteran maverick Senator is a no-nonsense adult, who has in the past and will continue in the future, to thwart conventional political wisdom and expedience in the name of what he believes are sound and enduring American principles.  Though they are related, this should not be confused with an “experience” campaign, which time and again fails to capture the imagination of the American public; John McCain cannot run Bob Dole’s campaign.

With upwards of 70% to 80% of the American public of the opinion that America is on the wrong track, according to some recent polls, change is undeniably desired. To be effective however, that change must be positive, be competently delivered, and be in keeping with America’s traditional (center-right) values. Thus, the slogan – “Let McCain Fix It,” not only recognizes people’s misgivings, but it suggests a solution – backed up by competence, experience, and ability, wrapped in a “can-do” attitude.

One of the most frequently articulated concerns about a McCain presidency is the age question.  At 72, is McCain too old to serve? Spending any time at all with the perpetually energetic man will disabuse you of that notion, but rather than attempting to merely negate the age issue, McCain should turn it to his advantage by specifically leaving the notion of a second term in question, even in doubt, and campaigning on a theme of a man beholden to no political masters or calculated future, fixing what is wrong with the government of the country he has so long served and stepping aside; Mr. Fix-it meets Cincinnatus.

By uncoupling himself from the perpetual-campaign style of governance, and embracing a roll-up-your-sleeves, results oriented, possibly one-term administration, McCain may be able to emulate and channel some of the same skills that made Theodore Roosevelt’s tenure in office such a political tour de force – the idea of a serious candidate, who shares Americans’ palpable disgust with the mismanagement of their own government, and evidencing an independent and unconstrained commitment to fix it, regardless of the political costs. It is an attractive idea. Given McCain’s demonstrable record of seeking and achieving concrete bipartisan legislative solutions, and being a consistent, indeed farsighted, leader on military and foreign affairs matters, McCain stands in stark contrast to the highly partisan, overtly leftist, and woefully inexperienced freshman senator from Illinois. Thus, McCain should embrace his maverick past, his bipartisan record, his practical low-key approach, his disarming, self-effacing humor and even his age (and concomitant lack of future political longevity), and contrast it sharply with Obama.

McCain can be a stop-gap president, a chance for America to cease flailing wildly from left to right – a chance to catch our breath, elect a trustworthy, competent leader who will fix some of America’s most glaring problems, tone down the political rhetoric, and provide us with practical, moderate solutions, and at likely just one term, do so without the risk of political buyer’s remorse.  Obama’s election would mark the most radical left-turn in American history, ensure bitter partisan fighting, invite legislative gridlock, threaten America’s progress in the Middle East, and ultimately achieve very little at home.  McCain’s campaign, unencumbered as it is by traditional political calculations, can also offer refreshing change, but it will be practical solutions delivered by a conscientious, independent leader, looking to do his job, rather than keep it.

In short, let McCain fix it.