Ridge and Powell: The "Phonebooth GOP"

John Fielding

"I may be out of their version of the Republican Party, but there’s another version of the Republican Party waiting to emerge once again,” Powell told the crowd."

Yes, Powell's version holds its convention in a phone booth.

Then, of course, Tom Ridge had to get into the act, calling Limbaugh "shrill," and telling him not to attack individuals, but ideas.

Rush does not attack individuals, but the views that those individuals represent. Because the liberals in the party can't defend themselves, they say he is being personal. At the risk of quoting a Democrat, Harry Truman once said, "They say I give them hell; I don't give them hell, I give them the truth. They just think it's hell."

The fact that McCain was a moderate did not lose him the election. If the only thing that had happened in the campaign was McCain as a moderate, he would have lost. However, two things happened. One, Palin joined the ticket and there was instantly new life. Then Wall Street and the banks crashed, and it was too much for McCain to overcome. That was why McCain lost.

But, barring those two events, McCain would have lost anyway. Is there anything in the campaign that caused the polls to spike upward as Palin joining the ticket? And is there any doubt that Powell would have endorsed Obama even without Palin on the ticket?

We were told that we needed a "moderate" to appeal to the "middle." I don't know where this "middle" exists. The only thing I know is this: even though the murder of unborn children is a primary issue to me (frankly, it seems to be the only thing the fascist left seems to be pro-choice about), it is not to many, who prefer to think with their stomachs. People don't vote for people who are moderate; they vote for those who are fiscally sane.

And that is why the GOP cannot support the crack-brained economic schemes of the left. Being conservative/libertarian on economic issues wins elections. The "many" who think with their stomachs tolerate the pro-life views of the GOP in order to elect its fiscal sanity. Listening to the nostrums of a liberal governor who raised taxes and had blow-out budgets, and a general who voted for JFK, LBJ, Jimmy Carter, and endorsed Obama, is not the way forward for the GOP.

They can continue to meet with all of their compadres, in the phone booth.