The liberals are always talking about free speech. They constantly say that they believe in the importance of all views being heard in the debate. They even came up with a slogan during the Bush years, “dissention is patriotic”. Now their views on free speech are being tested and they don’t like it very much.

What liberals mean by free speech is that all liberal views should be heard. No conservative should ever dare question any liberal position on anything. When liberals say that dissention is patriotic, they mean that dissention is patriotic when it is a liberal protesting against a conservative. That is the natural order of things, so of course it is patriotic. When a conservative questions a liberal the natural order of things has been upset and so it is not patrioti

Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer signed a statement the other day that basically said that there is no free speech for conservatives. Now, I am reading between the lines and making conclusions from their arguments, but I think that most liberals would agree with that assessment. If they were two people off of the street, it would be a dangerous document. But, because they are the top two Democrats in the House of Representatives it is radioactive in its impact. The White House and Barack Obama seem to agree with that sentiment as they continually talk about being attacked by right wingers.

Democrats from the House and Senate on recess are cancelling Townhall meetings at a record pace. They are being confronted at every event and always come off looking like the fools they are. I saw a You-Tube video of a man with a handicapped child in Michigan who confronted his Congressman. He was removed from the room for his efforts. There was a doctor in Atlanta, GA that was accused of being from outside the area and a Republican. Both charges were completely false. Democrats are hiding behind closed doors or accusing their constituents of being paid by the insurance companies. Their fear is showing. That is a good sign as it might tell them that this so-called healthcare bill is not something they want to support.

Hopefully Democrats are getting the message that people are upset. I know that around here people are upset enough to vote the person out of office in 2010, if they vote for the bill. To pass the bill, Nancy Pelosi needs almost all the Democrats to vote with her. She is unlikely to get any Republican votes. That makes the move a Democrat Albatross. If it is as bad as advertised, and it is most likely worse, Democrats will be on the outside of power rather quickly.

So far, the Democrat leadership has been completely tone deaf on this issue. They are determined to pass the bill, regardless of the lack of support. Some of their members have their ears to the ground and know that to vote for the bill is political suicide. The leadership will try to pay the members off with millions or even billions of our dollars to get them to agree to vote for this monster. That will just add a fiscal irresponsibility tag to the arrogant politician tag. Those tags will not fly very well in the 2010 and 2012 elections. People want fiscally responsible politicians in Washington and the Democrats have proven themselves unworthy of the public trust.

The Republicans have not taken the lead on the issue as of this date. They can take the lead, if they desire to. So far, all the Republican response has been fractured and disjointed. Of course, it has been filtered by the news media. An election cycle will take care of that problem. It is just that there is no unified voice of the party. That person needs to emerge, and quickly. Whoever takes the lead on this issue will be the next President in 2012. But, that window of opportunity is open only for a short time. If you don’t grab the bull by the horns now, it will take more work in 2012. Let’s hope that someone decides to get out in front and be willing to take the arrows. Arrows from Democrats may sound terrible, but are really nothing of consequence.

Yesterday, I heard some stirrings from Mitt Romney on the Hugh Hewitt show. The scenario is written as a perfect script for Romney. If he wrote up his dream scenario, this would be it. I am not sure why he has not jumped out in front and said here I am, follow me. If he says it now and provides real leadership, then the bigots will have no impact on his campaign.

The Republican Party is in shambles right now. There are people on the right that say, throw out all the moderates and stick to core conservative principles. There are moderates that say, throw out the core conservative principles and move more to the left. Which will be the final winner? Only time will tell for sure. My gut instincts are to stick to conservative principles, because when they are spoken with conviction they always win.

Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush are on a “Listening Tour” around the country. Is there anyone in the entire world that believes that a listening tour is anything but a campaign photo op? On their listening tour, Jeb Bush made the comments that we should give up the values of Ronald Reagan and move more to the center. He said that because he believes that would bring in a larger tent for Republicans.

Mitt Romney put his foot in his mouth on this “tour”. He was shown a list of important Republicans. On the list was Governor Palin of Alaska. Mr. Romney said that she did not belong on the list of important Republicans. Thereby breaking Ronald Reagan’s 11^th commandment, thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican. That was a particularly dumb move on his part. She is an important player in the Republican game at this point in time. She may ultimately fall out and be what Mr. Romney says she is, but we do not know that at this time. She may also be important enough to be on the ticket in 2012 in either spot. I should say at this point that I contributed to Mitt Romney’s campaign for President in 2008. I believed he was the best person to be President in 2008 and still do.

But, just because I support a person does not mean that I cannot see their flaws. In 2008, Mitt had a problem of being too stiff. He had a hard time taking off his tie and connecting with the people. He had a hard time just being himself in public. That got better right at the end, but it was too late. Right now, he is quite comfortable in the public eye. Had he been this comfortable in 208, he would have been the nominee. I also see the mistake in criticizing Governor Palin. She is obviously working on polishing up her resume to be ready for a run at the Presidency in 2012. This comment will come back to haunt him in the 2012 race, especially if it comes down to the two of them.

The biggest question the Republicans have to answer is who shall lead the party? The person that leads the party will be the face of the party. That person’s values will also become the values associated with the Republican Party. It is critical that Republicans pick a good leader with good values. We cannot have a repeat of Independents and Democrats voting for our leader. That led to John McCain and disaster. I am not saying John McCain is a bad person. I am just saying he was the wrong candidate at that time. Against the nimbler Obama, McCain stood no chance. McCain stood on some principles that made no sense. He voluntarily tied his hands and would not return fire when it counted.

My choice in a leader should have a clear vision of what a conservative should be. That leader should articulate the conservative position in such a way that people get excited about being a conservative. The leader should not be defensive about being a conservative. My leader should believe in and support liberty for Americans and others. My leader should talk about releasing the power of private ownership of businesses. In other words, my leader should be everything Barack Obama is not.

I think we have a good selection of people to pick from. In my mind, the most polished and ready candidate is Mitt Romney. I am biased as I supported him in the past. We have a couple of potential stars in Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal. They needed some seasoning in 2008. Sarah was a better speaker than Bobby. Bobby probably has a better resume. The others on the list like, Jeb Bush, Governor Huntsman of Utah and Mike Huckabee have more serious flaws. There will not be a “perfect” candidate. No candidate will completely emulate Ronald Reagan, but they do not have to. The one that best matches their potential will be the ultimate winner. We can win the White House in 2012. All we have to do is select our “Best” candidate, not a perfect candidate.

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.