re: #409 Sharmuta

You presume wrong.

And Colin Powell isn’t speaking for the party, he’s speaking to the party. There’s a difference.

I fail to see how pushing social issues helps get back fiscal responsibility, BTW. It’s social issues that are killing the republicans. Many of us want fiscal responsibility, and if the GOP isn’t going to be the party that represents that, then I have no political home.

The social issues are being overblown - remember that democrats are crafting the message. They want those who aren’t in line with those issues to think the GOP is going to a full-on theocracy mode. The reason why McCain lost isn’t because of social issues, the reason that the GOP lost the majority in 2006 isn’t because of social issues, but if you want to believe that go ahead. It’s very clear that conservatives do not want the spending and lack of responsibility in the congress, and therefore are staying home because they have nobody to vote for. Conservatives generally liked Palin’s fiscal conservative credentials and believe me, without her, McCain is lucky to see 35%.

The democrats want you to believe that the GOP is being overrun with ID nuts and religious wackos. It’s just not the case. Yes there seems to be a lot of it at the local level, but you hear about it so much now because that’s the recipe for GOP defeat - don’t challenge us on the issues, paint all of us as wackos so we don’t get taken seriously. That also explains the lower party identification numbers - who wants to be abused by leftists who don’t care about tolerance or free speech, only bullying?