Nancy, you make me swoon

Dane County Executive Candidate Nancy Mistele offers a full throated libertarian/conservative message for students.

This web ad is great because it gives us a concrete example of why limited government is an optimal choice. I see the subtext as "stop the paternalistic crusade and focus on the proper role of Government."

"Rather than dedicating the resources to tracking down the killer and fixing the 911 center, Kathleen Falk is busy cracking down on legal and responsible activities on campus. Her priorities include banning keg delivery, increasing the beer tax, and forcing bar owners to charge legal patrons higher prices. Elect me County Executive and I'll dedicate resources to making Campus safe again, not cracking down on legal activities."

Notice that Mistele sells a small government message to young voters better than any Republican has in recent memory. Falk's nanny state is out of step with the student population.

Get the Falk of Dane County!

Shes back!

One of my favorite bloggers Liz Mair is back after leaving the RNC's blog and then taking some time off blogging for her work. She just wasnt the same with the muzzle of the RNC!

She recently had a great critique of CPAC which articulated many of my problems in a way that I couldn't. One of her recent posts is titled:"I still love John McCain and think he's awesome". I feel the same way. Apparently McCain has been Twittering and on a "tweet" (ugh) about earmarks, Liz appreciates his straight talk.

Welcome back Liz!

DC school choice

It looks like Congress will kill the DC choice program, but let the remaining students stay.

I still find this move appalling, but not as bad as my worst fears. You could of literally had the spectacle of Obama forcing his daughter's friends out of their school. The whole thing reeks of thuggish turf protection.

The main consitituents of the choice program are the same that vote 90%+ for the Democrats. I hope they remember who did this. I love it when liberals "explain" that the black community is socially conservative yet votes for the Democrats out of a tendancy to vote their economic interests. This Malcolm X speech comes to mind: "Every election year these politicians are sent up here to pacify us!...Oh, I say and I say it again, ya been had! Ya been took! Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led astray! Run amok!" See
here

I feel the need to explain that Im not singling out one group of people, I think voters are actually by and large irrational.

What they said.

RPW sent out a press release calling Jeff Wood out on his vote against the requirement of a supermajority vote to raise taxes. If Wood is for TABOR there is no reason I can think of that he would oppose this.

Im still trying to figure this weirdo, out but he seems to be voting with the Democrats as if he were one. Wood came into the Assembly as a libertarian Republican. He now votes like a left-winger. I was done with Wood when he didn't come clean about his DUI situation and still hasn't. It seems like a case of a guy thats gone native.

*A typical evening for Jeff Wood

RNC Chair Race

The 1st ballot just got over with and Michael Steele came just behind Mike Duncan. Maybe someone more informed than I on the process could tell you more about what this means than I but I suspect it is very good news for Steele. He is surging on intrade

There was a survey of the Young Republican National Committee and they felt that the voting process taking place now is ignoring their concerns. The election of Steele would prove them wrong. (They prefer him) I also suspect they don't buy the criticism that Steele's support for moderate GOP groups is a strike against him.

Remember This Apparently Saul Anuzis is channeling Kevin Madden. He put out an attack on Steele for his support of Log Cabin Republicans. The RNC did a good a good thing by ditching gay-bashing Anuzis.

The GOP is set to pass on Duncan, (status quo) Dawson, (It would be a sign that the Republicans are content with merely holding their Southern base) Blackwell (polarizing and his main draw being his strict Conservatism, meaning the Republicans are not concentrating so much on ideology) and gay-bashing, no solutions Saul Anuzis.

The Republicans I think will install Michael Steele who Conservatives like just fine, is the best communicator and the most charismatic. He ran the best GOP Senate campaign in '06. Steele is the most up to the job. Fair to say their voting for change?

Everett Dirksen

Michael Zak who runs the excellent grand old partisan blog reminds us of GOP support for the Civil Rights Act. They were led by Minority Leader Everett Dirksen who broke Robert Byrd's 14 hour filibuster.

Why Governor Doyle had a Bad Day

Obama is now dropping his support for a windfall profits tax. This must be giving Jim Doyle a headache.

Obama will be going around saying that a tax is not needed because the price of oil dropped and the oil companies profits have decreased. Doyle is stuck without the cover of the party line, and we'll see how he explains the fact that the leader of his party thinks its a bad idea.

More bad news. His hometown paper
editorialized against the proposal on the very same day. Ouch.

The logic behind the windfall profits tax was always particularly interesting. Oil companies are making record profits at the expense of the hard pressed consumer so lets tax the profits! Well, other corporations have made larger profit margins than oil companies, but lets concede that point for a moment. A windfall profits tax isn't going to make gas any cheaper. It isn't going to INCREASE production The companies will a)pass the cost on right back to the consumer. b)Restrict supply as it can not sell it at the market price.

Happy Birthday John McCain

Well done on the pick sir!

Sarah Palin is a gamechanger. I am embarrased to not have seen the wisdom in this, and it beats the heck out of Mitt Romney.

The Democrats will trod out their "0% foreign policy experience" talking point. The fact is the man at the top of the ticket is unmatched on foreign policy experience and Barack Obama is the one that has only been a Senator for 4 years. Palin beats all three men on Executive experience.

Look at the way the McCain campaign rolled this out. Yesterday morning Lieberman was leaked. Then Romney was leaked. Then Pawlenty was leaked. Then it was going to be Romney then Pawlenty again. The McCain communications team kept him in the news all day and took the media for a ride. The pick did not leak out until this morning. which really helped the effect. We all woke up to a shock. Compare that to the Neil Kinn... err Joe Biden pick. Obama promised his supporters they would be the first to know via text message, the pick leaks at midnight and the text goes out at 3AM. I thought it was Obama's campaign that had the rock-star communications game and it was McCain's that was bumbling their way through the campaign.

Obama went negative at McCain hard last night while Palin was entirely positive. McCain has had the risk of winning men closely while losing women by a fairly wide margin. I think both genders are now in play. There is no saying that Romney would have been a positive on the economy because of his experience. The Obama campaign was probably thinking he would be an easy kill by continuuing their xenophobic, class-warfare campaign about houses and wealth. Palin grew up middle class in Alaska and is well off currently but not (rich). Also, both members of the GOP ticket has a son in Iraq so there goes the chickenhawk allegation. McCain has put him self on top the world today and Barack Obama is sweating it out in Beaver, Pennsylvania.

Steve Schmidt taking over from Rick Davis the day to day operations of the McCain camp has been a great benefit. The "celebrity" meme was questionable with regards to its effectiveness but apparently he guessed right. It now looks like the campaign is taking my advice. With a reformer on the ticket McCain can make the case that he is the change agent. To be viewed otherwise was always a poor reflection on how informed the American people are, not a poor reflection on McCain. Like I have previously said, politics are about brands, the ammunition is there, if it is fired correctly, Obama's lead on "change" can be erased, his brand discreted and he will be finished. Way to go Sargeant Schmidt.

Sarah challenged the Incumbent Republican Governor in a primary and won. She opposes the porkbarrel Republicans Young and Stevens, endorsing their opponents. Palin's brand is conservative reformer, maverick, and insurgent. Obama's vacuous "change" is coming to an end.

Governor Palin is a beauty pangeant winner, has 5 kids one with Down's Syndrome, has a husband that is a snowmobile racer and is an NRA member. Swing voters will eat this stuff up.

One of my worries for the past year has been who other than McCain can viably lead the GOP. A woman who is attractive, Religious, but rarlely invokes it like a Huckabee or Brownback, conservative but not extreme. You often here that all the GOP has to do is go back to Reagan. The problem is, 1980's problems are not 2008's. Palin will coopt Tim Pawlenty's "Sam's Club Republicanism" making a renewed effort to capture middle-class voters with market-based solutions. Palin is the future.

Congratulations to Governor Palin for being chosen to be the 1st female vice presidential nominee of the Republican Party on the anniversary of the day women got the right to vote.

p.s. Will she be the 1st female President?

p.s.s. What a ticket!