Is it time?

With the market on-pace for a bench-mark that hasn't been seen since 1937 (literally, the END of the Great Depression!), is it time to consider what "conservatives" are going to do for the next four years IF Obama wins?

The market keeps tanking, Mac is saying the damnedest things, the Palin-glow is fading, and the "base" is getting pissed-off. Mac's biggest supporters STILL aren't conservatives in the House and Senate, they are "Blue Dogs" in the House and Senate. Joe Lieberman has given more support than any of the former GOP candidates since the primary (and I am including Thompson in that list), and I think it is beginning to show.

Obama is rapidly approaching that vaunted "ten point lead" in ALL the varied polls as we near the November 4 election day, and that doesn't mean he's won... but it is really BAD for Mac. History is NOT on his side. I keep hearing comparisons to the 1980 election, and how Carter was leading for the months immediately after the primary... but it isn't that Democrats do well in failing economies (they do NOT), my point is that INCUMBENTS don't do well in failing economies, either. Just ask George Sr. We don't have an incumbent running, but the vast majority of America will see McCain as more of Bush (right or wrong, that is the unquestioned impression).

So, let's imagine that Obama wins in Nov. What happens then? If the GOP loses NO seats in the House and Senate, they don't have the "super majority" that would make them untouchable, so the GOP would have the opportunity to play opposition politics the same way the Dems have for two years now. No new GOP initiatives pass, but plenty of liberal policies and legislation get hung up or shot down. If they GAIN seats (unlikely), they might even be able to stop some of Obama's larger "promises" from coming to fruition.

The last process that brought REAL leadership to the White House (and even I agree that Reagan was a REAL leader) was four years of crushing Democratic failure to address problems from both a Democratic Congress and White House. Promises of "change" proved to be as empty of substance as a can of Billy Beer was of flavor. Within two years (maybe less, I am not sure), the Congress (Dem majority, too) had turned it's collective back on Carter and left him floundering with little to no support. Tip O'Niell openly criticized the President regularly, as did his Cabinet. In fact, he even had to ask for the resignation of his ENTIRE cabinet to get the three men he really wanted "fired" to quit. That's not leadership... but it is similar to how I have seen the Bush II White House operate (i.e. Rummy and Co.).

Anyway... what would be better for the GOP? To play "opposition" or to simply allow the Dems to fall apart all by themselves, something I am supremely confident they can manage without ANY help from the other side of the aisle. There is no leadership from Pelosi, Reid, or the rest of the DNC (Savage called them the Democratic Central Committee... that gave me a chuckle!), and I am convinced that, should Obama win, we will see NO substantial change as promised, but only more of the Clintonian "good ole boy" process that so disgusts people like Ryan (although I tried time and again to show that Bush was a "good ole boy" too).

The real movers and shakers of the American economy will "pull back" for an Obama White House... as there is NO question (even from me) that raising the already record-high corporate tax another 16 to 24% is NOT going to help, nor is a 19% increase in the capital gains tax, nor is a 37% windfall profit tax... so only the ACTUAL legislation behind Obama's promises will be seen to impact the US economy. The current Congress has done NOTHING to further the economy, so there is NO chance that credit for any future economic improvement will go to THEM, even in their wildest dreams.

The question that I keep getting asked by liberals I know is "Am I better off now than I was in '00?" My answer is YES... with caveats. I AM safer as an American. I HAVE benefited from the Bush tax cuts. I can recognize that Bush has done more than any other President since 1972 to (at least) curb the pro-abortion movement in America. I am a HUGE fan of Chief Justice Roberts. THAT is why I am voting "red" this election.

None the less, Bush never again stepped up and showed the spine and leadership that he did on that pile of rubble in September of 2001. He backed failing policy and questionable appointees all the way to the wall... and the country is NO better off because of it. He has NOT led a conservative White House, and while I did not vote for him in 2000, it was what he ran on... and he hasn't delivered.

My point is that I don't see real difference from what we HAD in G.W. to what we are promised in McCain. I can support his policies and agendas... but his leadership won't be an improvement, in my eyes. As much as I like Palin... she's not running for President, is she? This is the failing of the GOP in the '08 elections... they couldn't find a LEADER to put on the ticket.

The Dems found a leader.