Hope and Change for the Other Side

Now that it is clear that The Chairman and his Politburo will rise to power in Washington, it is time for the other side to consider the mantra of 'hope and change.'

Frankly, the only hope the GOP has of turning around 2 straight losses in 2006 and 2008 is to change direction.

Republicans must turn back to their core principles of low taxes, small government, balanced budgets, and a reduction in federal spending, or else they are going to get plastered once again by the voters.

Clearly the main reason the GOP has taken a hit in the last 2 election cycles is that they have acted more like Democrats than Republicans. And the choice of John McCain to head the ticket this year was simply one more big mistake based on the premise that the GOP must appear to be more 'moderate' to win.

On issue after issue, such as immigration control and securing our borders, opposing bailouts for large, mismanaged corporations, drilling here in America for our own oil and becoming energy independent, opposition to pork barrel spending, opposing the notion of 'redistribution of wealth,' support for tax cuts, and a host of other issues, Americans support the GOP by overwhelming numbers.

The problem was that poll after poll showed Americans were more afraid McCain would raise their taxes than Obama, the perception being that McCain is simply one more RINO who is just as untrustworthy as the Democrats on matters such as taxes.

Pat Toomey at National Review has an article that points out at least 2 ways the GOP can change direction and thus give hope to conservatives for winning in 2010 and 2012.

How the GOP Can Win in 2012

Now is the time to for the GOP to change the primary season calendar and primary rules for the 2012 election campaign.

Unless this is done post-haste, then the Democrats will use the present system to beat the GOP into the ground.

To accomplish this task, all the Dems have to do is to use the Rush Limbaugh principle--Operation Chaos. Rush encouraged listeners to register as Democrats in the various Democratic primaries in order to vote for Hillary Clinton as a means of derailing the Obama machine.

It almost worked. But Rush started too late. Had he begun the operation on day one of the Democratic primaries, the GOP could have stopped Obama from being nominated.

After Rush began Operation Chaos, Hillary won state after state in the large battleground areas.

The Democrats will use their own version of Operation Chaos to make sure that the GOP selects the very weakest candidate to go up against Barack Obama. They will register as Republicans and vote in GOP primaries for the absolute weakest candidate.

There is a way to prevent that from happening, but the GOP must act now to change the rules and the primary calendar.

Hugh Hewitt at Townhall.com presents the plan as devised by Rush Limbaugh.