Posted by
Steve on Tuesday, March 03, 2009 12:09:15 PM
When I coached kids in baseball, I always told them to keep their eye on the ball all the way to the bat. That gave the hitter the best chance to hit the ball. Those batters that took their eye off of the ball and tried to look where they were going to hit it generally missed the ball entirely. In politics, it is much the same. Those that keep their eye on the ball (the goal) generally make it to the goal. Those that take their eye off of the ball, give ammunition to the other side to shoot you with.
During the last week, many so-called conservatives have taken their eye off of the ball and criticized Bobby Jindal and Rush Limbaugh. They criticized Bobby Jindal because he didn’t look right or he did not read the teleprompter as well as Barack Obama. So, what! It does not matter what someone looks like. It matters what his/her ideas are. Barack Obama looks great, but his ideas are poison. I would rather have the ugliest person in the world there if his/her ideas were more freedom and liberty. I would rather have a person that cannot speak a complete sentence without stumbling, if their ideas are good. A smooth talker with socialist ideas is not what this country needs.
People are criticizing Rush Limbaugh because he was too direct in criticizing Barack Obama. That is exactly what we should be doing. Rush has his eyes on the ball. He knows what the goal is. He knows how to get there. He has a vision of what America should look like if the constitutional liberties were given back to the people. That is what he wants for America. Barack Obama wants to turn us into a socialist nation. A socialist nation requires a dictator to run it. No republic can be a socialist nation like Barack Obama envisions. It requires a strong central government that is ready to stomp on the people if they get out of line. That cannot happen in this country today. He is trying to turn the country into something that will allow that sort of thing to happen. Which vision of America do you want?
We need to decide what we want for a goal that everyone can support. Then we need to start working toward that goal with all our energy. We need to stop criticizing those that are not perfect in their attempt to help us to that goal. People are not perfect by definition. If we expect perfection in our leaders, we will not have any leaders. We have to select the best people for the job and understand that they have flaws. If the flaw is minor, that person should be selected as a leader. If the flaw is major, the person should be rejected. Rejecting a person for their color or sex or religion is stupid. As long as that person is a good person and lives according to their religion, that is all that should matter. I may have a problem with a Muslim. Until I know whether that person truly supports liberty or whether they want Islam as the universal religion that person would have to be suspect. If they truly supported liberty and capitalism, then I could support even a Muslim for President. But the true test is whether the person holds the vision of America that I do or one close to the one that I hold. All other things are secondary. If I am selecting between two people that hold the same vision, I then start looking at secondary issues. The vision is the most important. We as voters have to keep our eye on the ball and find those leaders that have a true vision of America. Then we have to get them elected to office.
This continual criticism of each other is playing into the hands of the Democrats. They have a vision of America that I reject. When we tear each other down, we give the Democrats the ability to get some of the voters that should vote for us. We need to be wise in selecting these leaders.
In looking at those that are in line to take up the banner in 2012, some are excelling and some have dropped the ball. Sarah Palin is not living up to what I thought she could be. She is still young and inexperienced, but she is dwelling on the past. That is not good. If a pitcher throws a pitch that someone hits out for a home run, he has to forget that pitch. The next pitch is the new pitch without any thought of what went before. Those that can do that are the best pitchers. Mitt Romney is really hitting all the right buttons right now. There is still a long way to go. In politics, a week is an eternity. We have 3+ years before we select our nominee. Let’s choose wisely this time. Last time, we let the Democrats pick our nominee and look what it got us. Let’s have the Republicans pick the nominee the next time and I am sure the results will be very different.