It wasn't long ago that I was attending gatherings of frustrated liberals wondering when oh when we would be delivered from the wilderness and how we could possibly emulate what the Republicans did best: messaging, defining their brand, riling up (and embracing) the base and, well, winning. It sounds funny now but just a few years ago Republicans were at the top of their game. Now the roles are reversed and it's the Republicans doing the soul searching.

Take for example Dick Morris's new column, which, on its face is a call to action to Republicans to save the Georgia Senate seat and hence block Barack Obama's "radical agenda," but really is the sort of Republican Party reformist manifesto that so many of us used to write about the Democratic Party (pre-Dean.)

If there is one lesson that is plain from the election, it is that conservatism is too important to trust to the Republican Party! A runoff election is a get-out-the-vote contest, and the Republican Party has proven woefully inept at such matters. In the election, the proportion of the vote cast by Republicans dropped from 1.3 percent above the Democrats to 2.6 percent below them.

The Democrats won the election of 2008 because they got their vote out and the Republicans lost it because they did not.

The same thing can happen in Georgia.

Sound familiar?

Morris also takes what the opposition did right and suggests they emulate it:

The Obama victory really started with the organization of Moveon.org in the bitter climate of Clinton's impeachment. Since then, the left-wing cyber-roots groups have amassed millions of e-names, piled up hundreds of millions in contributions, and mobilized and expanded their base. It is through groups like GOPTrust.com that we, conservatives, must go through the same process if we are to take our country back.

"Cyber-roots" and "e-names"? Okaaay. But you take my point. Morris is promoting GOPTrust.org (aka The Republican Trust PAC) as their version of MoveOn. And who are they exactly?

Only a group like this one, The National Republican Trust PAC, which sponsored the Rev. Wright ads that delivered all the undecided vote to McCain in the election, has the flexibility and focus to do what the Republican Party should be doing on its own. And we cannot sit back and let complaisance and over confidence lead us to another election day debacle.

You see, those Reverend Wright ads are where true conservatism is at.

I don't know what the saddest thing about this organization is. The fact that they brand themselves using the very name of the entity that they claim to want to reform, the fact that their website features a tab labeled "TV Videos" or the fact that the organizing principles laid out on their About page are the very things repudiated in dramatic fashion just 8 days ago by the American people.

But as scary as it is, as I read Morris's column, I felt a sense of empathy with his goal. I'm fairly confident that this organization has about zero chance of achieving the success of Moveon.org but it's worth tracking the GOP's attempts to come out of the wilderness as the effort enters its nascent stages as we don't want to write them off as quickly as they did ours.

There's more...

http://politicalpyro.blogsome.com/2008/0 5/11/by-any-means/

Barack Obama's staunch support for his cousin Raila Odinga's bid for the Kenyan Presidency has long been forgotten by the American mainstream media. The ethnic cleansing that followed, however, is well-documented and quite disturbing...

The UK's Telegraph reported: "Hundreds of women and children, including boys as young as five, have been gang-raped in a wave of sexual violence that has swept Kenya in the aftermath of last week's disputed presidential election."

... Even more disturbing when you discover that it was planned all along.

Peter Kimani, Managing Editor of the Saturday Times in Kenya, wrote in a very revealing article: "What is unfolding in Kenya may be anarchy but it has also been choreographed long before the first ballot was cast". He describes Raila Odinga this way: "As the militant African-American activist Malcolm X would have put it, power by any means necessary is a mantra that perfectly fits Odinga, who was detained for six years for his role in the abortive 1982 coup in Kenya".

Now which American political strategist do you think is slimy enough to be a major player in this type of incendiary campaign? None other than Dick Morris. It seems members of Barack Obama's own foreign policy team helped forge this little soiree.

Michael Gaynor of The Conservative Voice wrote: "Raila Odinga's official presidential website is similar to Barack Obama's, and Odinga's main campaign message and slogan is: CHANGE. Vote for Change. Agent of Change". You can find Odinga's web page by going to this Web History Locater: http://www.archive.org/web/web.php. Type in the Odinga web page (www.raila07.com) which they have taken down - you can't escape the web. [thank-you ztormtra]

On a final note, look at Odinga's psychological victory tactic: "ODM leader Raila Odinga Sunday declared that Kenyans had elected him the President of Kenya just moments before the Electoral Commission released the final results. However, the results announced by the commission's chairman showed that President Kibaki had emerged the winner"...

Now compare it with Obama's upcoming approach reported in Politico: "Not long after the polls close in the May 20 Kentucky and Oregon primaries, Barack Obama plans to declare victory in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination".

Just a Coincidence? Just words? Or is it fair to assume that by analyzing the company Barack Obama keeps, we are in fact seeing a reflection of Obama's own political soul?

There's more...

As much as I disagree with Dick Morris's politics, I am impressed by his intellect.  I admire the calm, articulate way he replies to questions, and he is brilliant at what he does, as evidenced by Bill Clinton's long association with him and the frequency with which he is invited on TV.  He always has something cogent and original to say like in the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igcB5vHKo 9k

(for some reason this blog doesn't let mey embed videos like other blogs do)

There's more...

From Newshound, another display of disgusting, smearing tactics by Dick Morris, Obama Shill. Let's get this straight--if it were one of Clinon's people doing this, there would be no end to discussion about it and how "terrible" and "divisive" or "polarizing" those Clintons are. Why this disgusting double-standard?--enough.

He accused them of money laundering and watch how he snickers it up with Sean while poor Alan can't even get a word in.

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By L.C. Johnson (bio/blog)

I suppose it is too much to ask of Obama supporters to read the following material and appreciate the arrogance and ignorance displayed by Senator Barack Obama, but folks, it appears he is going to do for Africa what George Bush has done for Iraq. Only worse. He is taking sides in a tribal war in Kenya that is on the verge of becoming a Rwanda-like genocide.

Really? Let's start with this uncomfortable fact. The leader of the Kenyan Orange Democratic Movement opposition leader, Raila Odinga, is Barack Obama's cousin. Barack may not put much stock in the relationship, but tribal allegiances are still strong in Kenya and Barack is clearly viewed as a Luo by his fellow tribesmen. Robert Ethan reported recently that:

There's more...