On the GOP...

Well, we hear from both Jambo and Ryan on the same day... nearly unprecedented.

Like I said, I understand the frustration the neo-cons in America must be feeling right now... mainly because I don't feel I have been adequately represented by my party in decades. Zel Miller was the last solid Democrat executive I could back... and he's been gone since '05. I certainly have never felt comfortable with any of the Presidential prospects the party has thrown up since 1984, either...

So, my words to Ryan and the rest of the Right?

Welcome to my world.

I stand by what I said, though... you want to blame someone for this mess? Don't blame McCain. There were plenty of "more conservative" candidates early on... they just didn't carry the base. If the majority of voting Republicans in this nation were as conservative as Ryan, Limbaugh, Hannity and Wilkow seem to think, then why didn't Romney or Huckabee win the nomination? Or Ron Paul? How much more conservative can you get than Ron Paul? Low taxes, smaller government, constitutional agendas... the only thing that I know freaks out people like Ryan is his insistence that the US stop any and all "nation-building" efforts at once and completely.

So, who's to blame? The biased media? The Democrats?

I blame George W. Bush. His "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" attitude towards his foreign policy agenda is going to haunt the GOP and the conservative movement in America for decades... mark my words.

His inability to articulate and promote his vision of policy in America has made the GOP seem, more than ever, like they couldn't care less about the concerns and questions of the general public, and it has given the far-left of the Democratic wing all the ammunition they need to compete in the '08... and probably the '12... elections. His abject failure in appointing functional and accountable people to key Cabinet positions will give history an entire decade of examples of how NOT to run a White House. The irony of that is the fact that his legacy follows right on the tail of "Slick Willie" and the era of stained dresses and phone recordings... but you'd be hard pressed to find many moderates that aren't looking back on the Clinton years with a large degree of fondness.

I'm not being facetious here, either. Granted, America has a terrible and very skewed grasp of history... but I think I am right in saying that the public, right now, would say that the Clinton years were better years than the Bush years... even if you took Iraq out of the question all together. My frustration with Bush is far different than Ryan's... but it is still very real, and I can't blame McCain for wanting to avoid any association with it.

McCain isn't Ronald Reagan... but I still think that most conservatives are looking at Ronnie through some seriously rose-tinted glasses, anyway, so maybe McCain is just what the country needs, as opposed to just what Ryan and the GOP wants.