So, here I go touching the "third-rail" in Colorado politics right now.  It got me kicked off of redstate.com and even had folks saying things like "Stay far, far away from my state", not realizing I am in his back yard. :->

The reality is that Dan Maes is NOT going to win this.  I was really disappointed when, like a real man, Tom Tancredo offered to leave the race and allow another Republican to be nominated if Dan Maes would leave the race.  Like a real politician, Dan Maes said "No".

Now, we are all unhappy with the prospect of Hickenlooper becoming governor.  Let me remind everyone that we were all really upset about Carter being elected, Clinton and now Obama too.  Have any of you folks stopped to think about what the election of those folks did for Conservatives?  Candidates that espoused Conservative values were "shoo-ins" after those folks got elected.  Nevermind that most of those elected were really RINOs wearing Conservative clothing.  Nevermind that, as soon as folks weren't watching as closely, they did everything they could to stomp out the real Conservatives that got elected.  Nevermind that the folks that do the vast majority of the work at the grassroots levels are Conservative and nevermind that it is the Kenesian and inte(R)nationalist policies of Karl Rove and Bush I & II and the "moderate" wing of the big tent party that lost the majorities that the Conservative grassroots worked so hard to get.

What to say about political parties?  Oh, yea: (from http://www.laughtergenealogy.com/bin/history/politics.html)

___________

Political parties did not exist in 1789. Washington despised the idea of political associations, formed in such a way as to pit one group of citizens against another. In his farewell speech in 1796 he said:
 

[While speaking on the subject -- The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish Government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established Government.]

"All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They [political parties] serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.

"However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust dominion."

________

Conservatives need to break away from the Republican party and become a force of our own.  The antics of Steele and Wadhams as well as John "I was a POW" McCan't, "No, don't take Baghdad" Bush and "Go take Baghdad" Bush, Mitch "Moderate leftist" McConnell and the poor excuses for Representatives leading the House Republicans, etc. are excellent examples that CONSERVATIVES AREN'T WELCOME IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.  Bring your votes but leave your opinions at the door and don't say anything about it or we'll kick you out!

I was on Capitol Hill for the 104th Congress, a.k.a. the "Republican Revolution", with Newt "Gushing about Clinton's friend Alvin Toffler" Gingrich's "Contract With America".  I worked for a Conservative Republican freshman from Texas (No, I'm not from Texas).  I helped (B-1) Bob Dornan (California) take on the inte(R)nationalist wing under Gingrich by bringing an American "security consultant" named Giles Pace, working for the Bosnian Muslims in Tuzla, Bosnia, to the US to testify in front of the National Security Committee prior to the American entry into the Bosnian conflict.  It wasn't even a year after the sweep of the House by Republicans singing the Conservative Anthem that all of the REAL Conservatives were pushed to the side like so much trash, cut out of the debate and literally told to be silent in meetings and the elitist,     inte(R)nationalist, "neocons" were already complaining about how the "Contract" was chafing them and how they weren't going to do that again.  

The point is that we are going to be taken again if we are not careful.  We need to support principle over party EVERY TIME.  If we don't we will continue, on the State level, to have weak-kneed apologetic moderates that are then pushed out in favor of someone who actually has beliefs.  Since the Republican party is dedicated to stifling Conservatives the only folks allowed to run who have beliefs are the Progressives.  The result is a constant trend to the left with no ground re-taken by Conservatives.  On a national level we will have a repeat of the neocon death march with the resulting international entanglements, budget deficits, expansions of big government, elitist snobbery, pandering to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and anyone else with oil or money policy.  What we WON'T have is a principled, moral, Constitutional government that reflects the Will of the People.

The Republicans have had their chance.  They have ridden the Conservative horse for too long without giving it food, water or rest.  Now it is time to unseat these morally gray usurpers and strike out on a truly Conservative course.  Change will not come in days or months but in years.  Yes, anything worth doing takes patience and hard work but wouldn't it be nice, for once, to not have to want to kick yourself when you walk out of the voting booth?  Wouldn't it be nice to hear someone defend the Constitution the way you do and actually win a debate with the liberals as opposed to just giving in and constantly compromising with the left? The Republican moderates have shown, in no uncertain terms, that they are willing to compromise to strength.  They have been doing it for years with the Progressives.  Isn't it about time to start pulling this country back in the right direction? 

Stop letting the moderates own delivery of the Conservative message.  Let's make them compromise with us instead of the Progressives.

I support Tom Tancredo and Sarah Palin and I DO NOT apologize for it.

Rumor and innuendo are the order of the day at the soon-to-be sole surviving, statewide newspaper. Visitors to the politics section of the Denver Post website usually see the latest stories ranked chronologically with major stories sometimes appearing with top billing. If you were to visit the site yesterday, you would see that the Post felt a two-day old story rehashing attacks on Sarah Palin and her child deserved to be at the top.

Some former McCain campaign staffers have initiated a smear campaign against Sarah Palin. They are essentially trying to cover their own asses by scapegoating the election loss solely on Palin. This is a fairly easy claim to debunk by looking at the polling during the last several months of the election:

(Graph & poll averages from RealClearPolitics.com)

The jump in the polls resulting from the selection of Sarah Palin as running mate and her subsequent performance at the RNC was the only point at which McCain was ahead of Obama in the polls since Obama had clinched the Democratic nomination.

Obama's swing ahead of the McCain-Palin ticket wasn't because everyone suddenly turned against Sarah Palin, it corresponds exactly with the government bailout of A.I.G. and the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac buyout several days earlier. This was about the public being alienated by the Bush Administration's socialist-style economic policies.

Looking at the polls, it's clear that the public was wary of Republican rule after these initial bailouts. McCain was down but not out. Then, on September 22nd, McCain let slip that he would support the Bush Administration's $700 billion bailout plan. Look at the sharp drop in McCain's poll numbers in the following days while Obama's remained remarkably flat. McCain dug himself a hole he would not be able to get out of that day.

The October 15th debate that centered on "Joe the Plumber" gave McCain a 2-point bounce over the following days. Had McCain done the right thing and opposed the Bush bailout, he would not have experienced that precipitous drop starting on September 22nd and could have been in the 45-48% range following that debate.

John McCain's loss can be traced almost entirely to his failure to offer any alternatives to the Bush Administration's handling of the fiscal crisis. That is what ultimately did him in. Sarah Palin and "Joe the Plumber" were the only rays of hope in an otherwise bleak situation. The former McCain staffers engaging in a petty anonymous smear campaign against Pain should be ashamed of themselves.

Governor Sarah Palin
and Special Guest
Hank Williams Jr.

WHEN:             Monday, November 3rd

                        Doors Open at 3:30 pm

                        Program Begins at 5:15 pm

WHERE:             Colorado Springs Airport

                       Jet Center Aviation

                       1575 Aviation Way

                       Colorado Springs, CO

TICKETS:         To attend the event, please RSVP by Clicking HERE:

                       or call 303-952-4670 to RSVP via phone

Road to Victory Rally
with

Senator John McCain

WHEN:             ELECTION DAY - Tuesday, November 4th

                        Doors Open at 8:30 am

                        Program Begins at 11:45 am

WHERE:            WestStar Aviation

                       Hangar #2858

                       796 Heritage Way

                       Grand Junction, CO

TICKETS:         To attend the event, please RSVP by Clicking HERE:

                       or call 303-952-4670 to RSVP via phone

Check back tonight as members of the Rocky Mountain Alliance and People's Press Collective participate in a liveblog of tonight's VP debate. The debate kicks off at 7:00 PM and the liveblog will go up around 6:30 PM.

The liveblog was organized by Ben DeGrow and can be viewed here or at any of the other participating blogs:

Ben DeGrow
Thinking Right
Drunkablog
Night Twister

Left-wing hysteria about Palin is reaching new heights every day. Today, Slate Magazine is asking readers for dreams about Palin:

I rarely remember my dreams, but for the past week, GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin has been haunting me. Night after night, she appears in my dreams, always as a scolding, ominous figure.

When I mentioned my Palin dreams to Slate colleagues, they volunteered their own. One Obama-supporting colleague dreamed she had urged her young son to kill Palin with a string bean. Another dreamed she was at a fashion show and Palin served her crème fraîche on little scooped corn chips. A third says, "In the Sarah Palin dream I keep having, she has superhuman powers but is not really a person at all. In fact, she is more like the weather with glasses and an up-do, pushing clouds around and pitching lightning bolts."

I don't think even George W. Bush had this kind of effect on liberals. Talk about an unhealthy obsession.

John McCain and Sarah Palin visited Colorado Springs today and were greeted by a crowd estimated to top 13,000. The McCain campaign had a special surprise for those who came out, thousands of American flags that were in the trash left over from the Democratic National Convention were rescued by a worker who did not want to see them sent to a landfill and were distributed to the crowd.

The Obama campaign has also issued a statement calling this a lie and claims that the flags were to be re-used and were stolen from the premises by the McCain campaign. Via Fox News:

Damon Jones, spokesman for the Democratic National Convention Committee, released a statement saying McCain should applaud the fact that thousands of American flags were “proudly waved” at their convention.

“But instead his supporters wrongfully took leftover bundles of our flags from the stadium to play out a cheap political stunt calling into question our patriotism,” he said.

Yeah, right. They were going to be used. I guess that's why RedState had photos of them during the DNC shoved into plastic bags along with used water bottles and empty DiGiorno pizza boxes.

Supporters at the McCain-Palin rally in Colorado Springs.

Rasmussen Reports has polling data on Palin now that she has given her nomination speech which nearly tied Obama's speech in ratings:

A week ago, most Americans had never heard of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Now, following a Vice Presidential acceptance speech viewed live by more than 40 million people, Palin is viewed favorably by 58% of American voters. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 37% hold an unfavorable view of the self-described hockey mom.

The figures include 40% with a Very Favorable opinion of Palin and 18% with a Very Unfavorable view (full demographic crosstabs are available for Premium Members). Before her acceptance speech, Palin was viewed favorably by 52%. A week ago, 67% had never heard of her.

The new data also shows significant increases in the number who say McCain made the right choice and the number who say Palin is ready to be President. Generally, John McCain’s choice of Palin earns slightly better reviews than Barack Obama’s choice of Joe Biden.

Perhaps most stunning is the fact that Palin’s favorable ratings are now a point higher than either man at the top of the Presidential tickets this year. As of Friday morning, Obama and McCain are each viewed favorably by 57% of voters. Biden is viewed favorably by 48%.

From Joe Lieberman's prepared remarks:

I have personally seen John, over and over again, bring people together from both parties to tackle our toughest problems we face --to reform our campaign finance, lobbying and ethics laws, to create the 9/11 Commission and pass its critical national security reforms, and to end the partisan paralysis over judicial confirmations.

My Democratic friends know all about John’s record of independence and accomplishment.

Maybe that’s why some of them are spending so much time and so much money trying to convince voters that John McCain is someone else.

I’m here, as a Democrat myself, to tell you: Don’t be fooled.

More...

Governor Sarah Palin, like John McCain, is a reformer who has taken on the special interests and reached across party lines. She is a leader we can count on to help John shake up Washington.

That’s why the McCain-Palin ticket is the real ticket for change this year.

The Washington bureaucrats and power brokers can’t build a pen strong enough to hold these two mavericks.

Barack Obama seems to be falling into the trap of contrasting his ability to be president with that of Sarah Palin, the candidate for vice-president. In an interview last night Obama claimed that the very act of running for president qualifies him for the job and couldn't hide his contempt that someone from a small town was daring to run for national office:

In an interview on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 Monday night, Obama was asked about whether his experience in the U.S. Senate dealing with weather-related situations compares to Palin’s executive experience running the state of Alaska and as the small town mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

“My understanding is that Gov. Palin’s town, Wassilla, has I think 50 employees. We've got 2500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe 12 million dollars a year – we have a budget of about three times that just for the month,” Obama responded.

Let's set aside for the moment Obama's strange fixation on the town of Wasilla (which CNN couldn't even bother to spell right) and set aside for the moment that Palin is Governor of Alaska in charge of far more employees than Barack ever has been. Let's set all that aside and just look at his claim that running for president counts as experience.

Does that mean multiple-time candidates Ralph Nader and Alan Keyes trump Obama's executive experience? The sad part is, it's probably true.

This story was largely drowned by the DNC and the left-wingers' subsequent foaming at the mouth over the selection of Sarah Palin:

Sen. Barack Obama sought more than $3.4 million in congressional earmarks for clients of the lobbyist son of his Democratic running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, records show. Obama succeeded in getting $192,000 for one of the clients, St. Xavier University in suburban Chicago.

Obama's campaign has taken a hard stance against the world of lobbying in the nation's capital. Obama said he limits his own efforts to get money for pet projects -- a process known as earmarking -- to those that benefit the public. He has posted his earmark requests on his presidential campaign Web site to encourage transparency.

Since Obama announced his selection of Biden on Saturday, attention has focused on Biden's lobbying connections as well as his son's lobbying activities. R. Hunter Biden is one of many relatives of members of Congress who work as lobbyists.

The younger Biden started his career as a lobbyist in 2001 and has registered to represent about 21 clients that have brought in $3.5 million to his Washington firm, according to lobbying disclosure forms.

Sen. Biden has collected more than $6.9 million in campaign contributions from lobbyists and lawyers since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

You have to wonder if the vicious attacks on Palin from the left are a strategic move to distract from this or are just motivated by lingering rage that a woman dared to oppose The One in the primaries.

...being a Governor and former Mayor makes you too inexperienced to be Vice-President but being a "community organizer" and state Rep. qualifies one to sit in the Oval Office?

What a stark contrast John McCain's VP choice is to Barack Obama's. Obama chose to go for the most status quo choice possible and picked someone whos mouth is likely to be a drag on the ticket. McCain has picked a truly forward-looking choice that will likely shake up the race and catapult McCain-Palin to the lead.

As was mentioned here late last night, the chartered jet from Alaska to Ohio was carrying McCain's running mate after all. Palin is an excellent choice. She will shore up conservatives, she brings the only executive experience in the race to the McCain ticket, and she will erode Obama's support among Hillary supporters even more. Palin has stood up to the Alaska political establishment's pork-mongering and will help reinforce McCain's message of cutting government waste.

This is one of the best choices that McCain could have made and I for one am glad to see that McCain resisted the urge to go with one of the candidates getting all the mainstream media attention lately who, while good men, I was concerned would bring little to the ticket.

Congratulations, Gov. Palin!

In a stark contrast to Obama's leaky campaign which let out news of Joe Biden to the press the day before the announcement, the McCain campaign has been very quiet.

Sarah Palin fans may have reason to be optimistic. If you recall, one of the early signs that Joe Biden had been tapped as Obama's running mate was the discovery of a chartered flight from nearby Biden's home to Springfield where the announcement was to take place. Tonight, it appears that a private jet has been chartered on a direct flight from Anchorage, AK to a small airfield outside of Dayton, OH where McCain's announcement will take place. It is almost certain that Gov. Palin is on board and will be attending the announcement. It is important to note that all of the candidates on the short list will supposedly be at this event but Palin's prospects are looking brighter.

Tim Pawlenty has also received scrutiny after abruptly cancelling his media appearances in Denver today and returning to Minnesota.

Secret service activity is rumored to be taking place around members of Mitt Romney's family.

I'm willing to bet that one of these three will be the nominee.