“Some say that America lacks leadership, but that isn’t entirely correct. We have any number of excellent leaders in the public sector, among whom Paul Ryan ranks at or near the top. The problem is that our real leaders’ ability to effect real change is stymied by the empty suits in locations like 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”
So says John Hinderaker at Powerline, and I agree with him.
He quotes the opening statement of Paul Ryan and it is eloquent, it is graceful, it is powerful and every word of it is true.
“The real source of dysfunction in the Senate comes from members of the President’s own party, who have been unwilling – for almost three years now – to go on record in support of his budgets, or to pass budgets of their own.
More to the point, it wasn’t so long ago that the President’s party held total control of the White House and both branches of Congress – during which time his agenda was enacted in near totality:
* massive new spending and taxes
* the creation of new, open-ended entitlements
* a regulatory onslaught that hurt the economy
* and trillions of dollars in new debt.”
You should really read it all here.
It is so refreshing to hear an adult deliver a message that ALL members of the opposition to the small c communists can get behind.
Too bad we simply aren’t getting that from ANY of the candidates.
The ONE candidate who actually has the ability, talent, skill set to deliver a powerful message, has imploded so badly, he has now reached the level of being ridiculed.
Ability to carry the message forward is a key element in winning the war for minds of voters in a rigged game against a propaganda machine and its party.
Ryan/Rubio have shown great skills in this arena. And, a comportment of both that has grace and elegance. Which is obviously and patently so…missing in these primaries.
The effects of which we are seeing in the skyrocketing negatives which cannot be denied with any credibility. The Republican brand is taking a beating. And THAT will hurt down ticket as well.
Wheb I read your title on the sidebar I knew who the post was about.
“When I read your title on the sidebar I knew who the post was about.”
Same here.
I’ll add Scott Walker to the mature adult leader category. Listen to his CPAC speech.
Ryan and Rubio are both enrolled in the Palin school of getting ready for the national stage. They start with more transfer credits than Palin had. We will see when they all graduate.
Chris Christie could use some of that, too, but he seems to be hanging out at the pizzaria instead of in class.
Well, yes, cf, it is about the ability to articulate a message. It is why the Right has all these “rock stars”. They are the people who can get the message out.
We have been clamoring for folks like Palin and Ryan and Rubio. Instead, we get Moe, Larry, and Curly. Even Ann Coulter was clamoring for Christie, despite him having a severe case of RINO-itis. Let’s face it, the guy really knows how to tell the Left to “get stuffed”.
Unfortunately, none of them are the actual candidates.
Well, Gingrich has his moments, but he is his own worst enemy.
Santorum really sings the SoCon high notes. It is why he now is surging. This Pill Mandate thing has made him a darling of Catholics. They looked around suddenly for someone to throw the bums out, and Santorum is singing them “Ave Maria”. They KNOW he will get rid of this mandate. No doubt, whatsoever.
Who knew that the SoCon thing would be such a game changer? This ham-fisted effort from Sebellius may just get the Left’s worst nightmare elected, a die-hard SoCon. They just had to go there, and then they are shocked at the outrage? It just makes me laugh.
And yeah, like Mill above, I knew immediately you meant Ryan.
I would agree CF. You’re a Ryan man, and I’m a Rubio man – and it’s simply a matter of style as both are good. And I hope at the very least, whoever the Republican winner, one of the two mentioned will be chosen and accept as V.P.
Actually, Rubio or Ryan were my preference to be the top dog. Didn’t get my wish.
A name that never gets mentioned because “throw all the bums out” is the popular message of the day is my own Senator, Tom Coburn. He’s honest and he is smart. He’s not pretty but he is polished. Tom is pretty good in debate in a folksy sort of way. But there is no way a class act like Coburn is going to subject his family to the kind of horesh*t these rat bastards in the media revel in.
So I have a suggestion this go around. Isn’t it long overdue we drag these roaches in the media from dark and shine a bright light on them? Why don’t we go after not just Barack Obama, but his water carriers in the media?
Tucker Carlson has done some good work this past week concerning Media Matters. I’d like to shake some jack booted thugs a little – like this David Brock cretin. Let’s put his personal life and character on the national stage, a little investigative work, and we’ll have a national discussion about Brock’s shortcomings. I think a little personal embarrassment and pain is in order.
And I mean brutalize the bastard…
The only way to dump Larry, Moe and Curly is to have a brokered convention. Any bets?
Is there any way to convince him his time has come?
I would argue that what America needs from our federal elected officials isn’t so much “leadership”. Instead, what is really needed from our elected officials is maturity. We need them to act like adults. They should come and go with as little impact on people’s private lives as possible. With each successive office holder striving to leave the country in a little better shape than they found it.
Rather than a federal executive and legislature focused solely on creating more laws, I’d like to see them equally ambitious at eliminating laws. Fewer laws means more freedom; more laws means less freedom. Can anyone recall one single President or Congressman that can claim to have eliminated more laws or regulations than they created while in office? Rubio and Ryan included?
I don’t need “leadership” from my federal elected officials. I’m a mature, intelligent, moral adult, and I won’t change my behavior depending upon who happens to be President.
Shouldn’t we be judging the candidates we do have on the basis of how well they would be able to form the younger talent into a team that can accomplish common goals. Ryan and Rubio will rise when the time is right.
Have you ever listened to Sen. Mike Lee of Utah? He can explain conservative principles every bit as well as Paul Ryan. He should be getting more attention.
Wait, you praise Paul Ryan, yet are wistful for Gingrich, even though Gingrich attacked Ryan’s modest cuts as “right wing social engineering”?
I don’t think people realize how damaging an attack that was to Ryan. That’s all he’s going to hear about when he actually runs for a higher office. “He’s a far right extremist! Too far right for Newt Gingrich”
We need Paul Ryan in the House, and we definitely need to get Boehner the heck outta the leadership. As in IMMEDIATELY.
We need Rubio in the Senate, too. He is priceless.
Second, I agree with vb at 8. Completely.
Had either R$R (imagine if they were on the same ticket? Use the Rolls-Royce symbol?
run this time around, they would have been utterly savaged by A, the Democrats–remember that TV ad in NY with Ryan pushing grandma over a cliff in her wheelchair?) and they would have been savaged by B, the Monster Mitt, mud-gunslinger hypocrite extraordinaire.
Chris Christy, RINO in everything but taxes/money issues, is at least governor of a state. Neither R&R can claim that sort of executive experience.
Mitch Daniels could’ve run but his ho-wife had run off some years ago, only to run back again–and she nixed him running because we would have had all the dirt on her that the MSM could puke up.
For that matter, if governors aren’t important, Mike Pence coulda/shoulda run. He’d been perfect, but it going for the governorship (last I heard).
I am saying to cf, whom I respect, get over it. R$R ain’t running, and the only guy whose last name starts with an R who is, Romney, is a political idiot–I honestly think so, how else to do you explain his “poverty” comment ruination of his Florida win (the best win money could buy)?
Bill Kristol had a short blog on his Weekly Standard website saying how Romney holds up conservatives in contempt. Check it out, it is good.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/going-after-rick_629844.html
And Bill K is supposed to be a classic est. Repub.
Unless Newt Gingrich can win a bunch of Southern states and we have a three-way tie going into Tampa, the nomination will be between Santorum and the Mudslinger Mormon Mass-bomber.
That’s just the way it is.
Meanwhile, we should be encouraging R$R to rise high in their respective chambers so that we can control Congress for the best, whoever wins the prez race.
An Préachán
Glad to see you getting to express your views at the top of the page, not buried in the comments section. (you may need to re-educate some of the newer readers what you mean by “small c communists”)
The Republicans have in Newt Gingrich, a mature candidate with the most conservative record of accomplishments in our lifetime. Holding only the House of Representatives and with a Democratic President and a Democratic Senate, Gingrich proved his leadership abilities by passing into law the ‘Contract With America’, resulting in the only balanced federal budget since 1957.
Today, we the same conditions that were in effect when Gingrich assumed his role as House Speaker; a Republican House, Democrat Senate and Democrat Administration. All of the current Republican leaders have accomplished nothing. They have increased the debt ceiling three times in less than a year, they have imposed drastic cuts on our military, we have surrendered most of the middle-east to the vagaries of stone age philosophers, we the new Home-Lunch Administration badgering our four year old babies and we whine about not having leadership.
We seem to have been seduced by the voices of sirens; all the words we want to hear but none of the results we wish to achieve. It’s time to leave the succor of our mothers’ breasts and face the reality of the world.