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Run like wimps, lose like men

Avatar by Dr Ransom at 12:31 PM ET , Thursday, Nov 09, 2006

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Categories: Columns, Media: Left-Handed News, War-cast: Iraq, Politics: Redshift, The Left Wing



(Guest column by DaveLoneRanger, originally published under “vanity” status at FreeRepublic.com.)

Okay, so we lost. Republicans lost the House, maybe the Senate.

Buck up. Suck it up, admit defeat, shake hands with the winners, and get over it. Don't let yourself get into a snit about it. Don't give the liberals ammunition to mock you. They draw strength from your defeat.

The tendency after any loss is to place blame. It's one way we have of maintaining some measure of control over our situation; knowing and identifying the problem not only helps us avoid it in the future, but it gives us control and security. (I believe this is why global warming alarmists, and leftists in general always seek to place blame, but I digress.)

I'll admit, I was unrealistically optimistic. I thought that, despite all the shortcomings, Republicans would narrowly keep both House and Senate.

But yes, I'm going to place blame. It doesn't help; no matter who should have done what, this race is over. But we had better learn from our errors for the next race, or we'll merely repeat it. And we've made some humdingers.

The biggest mistake was in failing to wage the public relations war over Iraq. On this, I exclude few from being held responsible.

The media spun the Iraq war day in, day out. CodePink traitors and anti-war protestors splayed across our TV screens, and the “Bush lied” mantra broadcast to millions, no thanks to your mainstream media dinosaurs.

In short, the Iraq war cost us the House.

Don't get me wrong. The Iraq war was right. Our cause was right, our reasons were right, our decision was right.

What was WRONG was our response to critics. We had none.

For this I blame everyone. All the officials, anyway. Bloggers can only go so far. The House and Senate leaders failed to combat the lies. Bush, Rove, Frist, Hastert, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Snow, Mehlman, all failed to fight the lies. Hannity tried, but was too eager to jump on anything coming out of Iraq. Even Rush didn't demolish the lies like he could have.

The Democrats took up the Iraq war and made it their platform, their hill to die on. With the unprecented negativity in the media, the daily humdrum of anti-war sentiment, and little to no response from the Republicans, we let them win much of the public while we waged a war. We lost when we lost the Iraq PR war.

When the leftists bellowed that we needed more allies, we didn't respond. (Even though we had the aid and support of 30+ countries in the beginning.)

When they said we should give Hussein more time, we broadcast but didn't drive home the fact that Saddam defied 17 resolutions to disarm.

When protestors said this was an illegal war, we did not respond that we were acting out of National, as well as International interest, legally permissible under Resolutions 1441, and 660, which authorized the Gulf War.

When critics began the “Bush Lied” tirade after finding few weapons of mass destruction, hacking endlessly at the solid tree trunk of President Bush, we either ignored, waved away, or agreed with the leftists' assertions. All while they continued to hack, chip and chop.

When Democrats insisted that Saddam was not a threat, no one but bloggers aggressively attacked this flip-flopping lie. Few officials called Democrats on their own words.

Bush received approval bounces of four and five percent when he went on primetime TV and defended the war. How many times has he done that? Four or five. All while the media continued the flood of negativity. 24/7/365 coverage times four networks all bashing the war and broadcasting negative images, and yet I can count on my hand the times he hit back. Bush failed to wage the PR war. Admitting no WMD's and conceding intelligence failures was, is and remains Bush's worst error.

It's their own fault. It's our own collective fault. I have to accept blame just like the rest of Republicans, although in my own small way, I was trying to combat the myths.

Now we're not going to get down in the dumps about this. People I know, and — judging from responses I observe — Freepers, are becoming depressed. And I agree, this does not bode well for the country.

But while we ran like wimps, we must lose like men. Suck it up. Shake it off. Buck up. GET OVER IT. We will not become depressed, we're not going to invent conditions like Post-Election Selection Trauma, and we can't start whining, or join a cut-and-run movement.

We must learn our lessons, and plunge ahead. But we MUST LEARN OUR LESSONS.

And make dang sure we get a better head start on grooming our 2008 candidates, primarily our presidential candidate. Democrats will be using their 2006 momentum, their willing media compatriots, and ongoing media-perpetrated negativity to make a go at the White House.

Their ranks are forming and strengthening.

The time to prepare begins NOW.

Don't blow it.



Condi ties Hillary in Fox News poll

Avatar by DaveLoneRanger at 10:03 AM ET , Thursday, Oct 06, 2005

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Categories: Politics: Redshift



According to a new poll, Hillary Clinton (former first lady and current senator of New York. Yes, that IS all) and Condoleezza Rice are in a statistical dead head for the 2008 Presidential Bid. Clinton is slightly ahead, but within the margin of error.

Unfortunately, I'm not rooting for the good Dr./Secretary Rice, despite the fact she would undoubtedly be a good and competent president.

Well, let me revise that. I'm ROOTING for her (because she would be much better than Hillary) but I won't vote for her. Secretary Rice has described herself as “mildly pro-choice,” but clarified this position in a Washington Post interview where she stated that she believed abortion should be as rare as possible, and did not support federal funding because she believes that “those who hold a strong moral view on the other side should not be forced to fund it.”

Way to take a strong moral stance, Secretary Rice. That “other side” would be those of us who do not support abortion.

I applaud Secretary Rice's accomplishments and success thus far, but she doesn't get my vote.

The problem is, Secretary Rice cannot now change her position any more than Hillary Clinton can change. It would prove that she is willing to switch political positions to suit a party, which means that she wouldn't truly a strong candidate. So long, President Condi ...