RightWave

Mark over at Do The Right Thing has a link to a great article by Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes on the Left’s plan to take over “red” states.  Of course, Colorado has long been their model, and they’ve been executing well (and expensively).  Colorado is dangerously teetering on becoming a mostly Democrat state (by count of elected officials) and turning back the tide on what was once the most “progressive” state in the union in terms of implementing good, free-market public policy reform.

From school choice to the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights to higher education vouchers to creating a tax code that ensured prosperity for its citizens, Colorado was once the beacon of conservatives (remember the National Review cover story about Bill Owens?)  And now, it’s not looking so good…

Fortunately, we have some smart folks on our side as well.  Eric O’Keefe has a superb piece published by the State Policy Network that’s worth a read about what we can do to fight back.  Our free enterprise side got a head start on the think tank front.  There’s no question we’re winning the battle of ideas.  But, we’re consistently getting beaten on the ground game.

Frankly, that’s why Americans for Prosperity is so important.  But, we need to keep up the fight and work to match the Left on every capability possible if we want to win - politically and, ultimately, with our public policy goals.  There is much work to do, friends.

UPDATE: Eric is (as usual) several steps ahead in talking about Fred Barnes’ article.  Read his take.

This shocking headline and opening courtesy of the venerable Associated Press:

McCain, Obama offer different visions on taxes
Make more than $250,000 a year? Watch out. Barack Obama wants to raise your income taxes. Social Security taxes, too.

Run a corporation? Lucky you. John McCain wants to cut your business taxes.

Those positions illustrate pieces of two vastly different approaches to the economy, an issue at the forefront of voters’ minds given that the country is teetering on the brink of - if not already in - a recession as gas prices soar and layoffs rise amid a credit crisis and a housing slump.

Obama, the Democrat, seemingly has a traditional liberal outlook of taxing the rich more while having the government help people of more modest means through tax breaks. McCain, the Republican, advocates a classic conservative vision of cutting taxes - many geared toward businesses - to promote competition within a free-market system.

I mean, wow.  Really.  Republicans and Democrats disagree on taxes?   I’m shocked.  Although, I guess, to be fair, this was in question in this election cycle. 

However, this is illustrative of one important point.  Senator McCain should keep this as the story.  He should stop talking about global warming or whatever other “straight talk” he’d like to provide us for the day.  He should keep talking about tax cuts and spending restraint.  He should talk about the expansive growth of government and how to stop it.  At least, I suppose, if he’d like conservatives to get at all excited about him this year.  Guess we’ll see…

Senator McCain, please don’t select Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal as your runing mate.  Please.

Yes, he’s a good man.

Yes, he’s a good, solid, consistent conservative.

Yes, he’s young, enthusiastic and good natured.

Yes, he’s often brilliant and a great thinker (and doer).

Yes, he’s an ethnic minority.

And, yes, he’s the future of the Republican Party.

Which is exactly why you should leave him be.  Don’t ask him to be your running mate. 

And, Governor Jindal, if you’re offered the post, please do the unthinkable.  Politely decline.

There is much work to do in Louisiana.  Work that must be done, and work that requires a strong, smart, right-minded, determined leader to accomplish great things and make bold decisions.  Not only that, but Louisiana today offers an unparalleled opportunity to enact sweeping free-market reforms: school choice, legal reform, ethics, fundamental tax and spending reforms.  The list goes on and on.  Governor Jindal can do those things.  He’s already started.

He can be a hero to both the people of Louisiana and the conservative movement at large.  He can demonstrate his can-do spirit and tout it around the country to conservatives who are downtrodden by decades of frustration and disappointment by their elected officials.  He can inspire a new generation of “policy wonks,” immigrants, young people and regular joes to engage in the process and maybe even run for office.

No, he’s not the most polished politician, but that’s part of his charm.  

He has a future to build and a legacy to leave. 

He can’t do it, however, if he’s snatched up by and caught up in a national race in the first year of his governorship.  And, make no mistake, this will be the nastiest election we’ve seen yet.  Despite the rhetoric of hope and change, I believe this will be an ugly year for American politics.  Perhaps some if it’s deserved, by the way, but it’s not the way any of the players will want to be remembered.

So, I ask.  I plead.  Let him be a good Governor.  Let him build his profile (did you see him on Leno a couple of weeks ago?). Let him develop his own narrative and his own personality.  Let him be the leader he can be.

Now, I’m sure we free-marketers will find something we don’t like or a place to disagree every once and a while.  It happens with every political leader, but his promise is strong and his potential great.  Let’s nuture it, develop it, support it.

Rush Limbaugh says he’s the next Ronald Reagan.  I’m not so sure about that from a political perspective.  Certainly, though, its achievable from the view of real policy accomplishments and sparking another conservative revolution.  Perhaps, even more importantly, righting the ship of the Republican party. 

We conservatives seem to find ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory all too often.  We move to fast, get too excited too soon.  Let’s not do it again.

Let’s look to the future, friends. 

So, Senator McCain, be bold in your choice.  Look outside the political field.  Choose a strong conservative and a good man or woman to run along side you (perhaps even influence you!).  But, I implore you, leave Governor Jindal be. 

Give him the real opportunity to lead the nation one day - in the future.

With her most recent assertions, Hillary Clinton has sunk to a new low, even by Clintonian standards.

As usual, Peggy Noonan captures this well in her most recent column:

In case you didn’t get what was behind that exchange, Mrs. Clinton spent this week making it clear. In a jaw-dropping interview in USA Today on Thursday, she said, “I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on.” As evidence she cited an Associated Press report that, she said, “found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”

White Americans? Hard-working white Americans? “Even Richard Nixon didn’t say white,” an Obama supporter said, “even with the Southern strategy.”

If John McCain said, “I got the white vote, baby!” his candidacy would be over. And rising in highest indignation against him would be the old Democratic Party.

To play the race card as Mrs. Clinton has, to highlight and encourage a sense that we are crudely divided as a nation, to make your argument a brute and cynical “the black guy can’t win but the white girl can” is — well, so vulgar, so cynical, so cold, that once again a Clinton is making us turn off the television in case the children walk by.

From “Yeas and Nays:”

 McCain planning climate change tour

Guys, we’ve got to stop this.  Any suggestions how?

He’s supposed to be the REPUBLICAN candidate, right?  What ever happened to limited government, less reguation, lower taxes, etc.  Why can’t he be as good on all these other issues as he is on spending and pork-barrel earmarks? 

Grr.

Caleb Heimlich, a former colleague and current friend, is running for the state house in Washington (state) this fall.  Check him out here and here.

 We need more Calebs - good, hard-working, market-loving guys - in government! 

Go get, em!