What's A Party To Do?

That's the question that the GOP is facing on the Ryan Medicare plan. As Jonah Goldberg put it here, the GOP needs to convince the public that they have the right plan, or face extinction as a party.

That may seem to be somewhat extreme, but I think its fairly accurate. The GOP owns the Ryan Medicare plan and the Democrats are determined (in light of the Hochul victory in NY-26) to try to ride the "Medi-scare" horse back into power. Goldberg analogizes the Medicare debate to Ceaser's crossing of the Rubicon. His view, "the die is cast" and the GOP, like Caesar, must win or die. Here is a portion of his post:

"The simple fact is that the Democrats have their battle plan. It’s going to be Medi-scare every day in every way for the next 17 months. They are on autopilot. They are committed. Their die is cast. They have crossed their Rubicon. They have no desire to defend Obamacare, high gas prices, high unemployment, and a third Middle East war. They want — no, need — to be on offense because they have so much they cannot defend.

The question now is, “What are Republicans going to do about it?” Are they going to play the role of Pompey, the dissolute leader who didn’t want to fight? Or will they don Cesarean robes and join the battle head-on because they know they have nowhere to retreat? That is the political choice for the GOP: Win or die."

I hope that GOP leadership has the stomach for this fight. Frankly, I'm halfway to believing that this is the battle that will determine the fate of the Republic. Once again, I know I sound extreme, but lets face it, Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, entitlement after entitlement, all broke. The report of the trustees was a real eye-opener (or, in a rational society, it would be). We don't have any more time to waste. This is a can that cannot be "kicked down the road". (For an interesting synopsis of the issue, check out this piece by Veronique de Rugy).

The GOP, in fact, the country, has crossed the Rubicon. There is no turning back. This is a battle which must be fought and must be won.

Very "Special" Election

Well the votes are in and Democrat Kathy Hochul was the winner in the special election to replace "Shirtless" Chris Lee in NY's 26th Congressional District. Hochul defeated Jane Corwin and Jack Davis for the seat.

I'm sure that by now, most of you have heard that (according to Democrats) Hochul's win was a referendum on the GOP's medicare plan or (according to Republicans) that the result was simply a matter of Corwin and Davis splitting the majority conservative electorate allowing Hochul to slip in.

There may be some truth to both sets of "talking points" but my main impressions of the election were somewhat different. First, Corwin really ran a crummy campaign. She had a significant GOP enrollment advantage, so she may have figured she didn't need much of an effort to win. Further, her campaign worker's "ambush" of Jack Davis backfired incredibly. The video of the encounter was a massive embarrassment to the Corwin campaign.

Most of all, however, I was astounded by the nature of the campaign ads. I'm not a "negative ad" naysayer. Some "negative" ads are appropriate for exposing particular flaws or positions of an opponent. In this race, however, I rarely saw a positive ad. There were three candidates and yet there were few ads giving voters affirmative reasons why they should vote for any one of them. The three candidates mainly went on a round robin of attacks against each other. If I had been in that district, I might have considered not voting at all.

A final word on the medicare "debate". I do not think that this election was a referendum on medicare although it was an important factor in the race. The reason I do not think it was a referendum was because Jane Corwin never defended or promoted the Ryan/GOP medicare plan after she fell under attack for saying she would have voted for it. The lesson the GOP ought to take from this election is that they need to have clear and direct defenses for their plans or the Democrat demagoguery machine will grind them up.

Memorial Day

I attended the annual Town of Gates Memorial Day service this morning.

I have been going to this event each year for over 20 years. I am happy to say that it has not become a "bother" but remains an event at which I am inevitably moved by a poignant story or two about men and women who gave that "final measure of devotion" to their country.

The numbers of veterans who attend have been dwindling. It appears that few Viet Nam era vets have joined the VFW's and Legion Posts around here. I imagine that the less than warm reception many of them received from their fellow citizens may have led them to keep their service history more private. I wonder if the veterans from our current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will feel differently, given that military is held in somewhat higher esteem today. I hope so.

I made sure to bring my kids go to this event, over the years, as well, (although my daughter now attends as a member of the High School marching band). I want them to hear the stories and see the aging veterans so that they may have some bit of appreciation for what these people did for us. Its so easy in our wired world to plug in to an ipod or laptop and ignore what is going on around us.

For 60 minutes, I am glad to take a break and quietly remember people who gave everything so that we could enjoy the many blessings of life. It is so very important not to forget what these people did for us.

Obama's Media Induced "Bounce"

Many pundits have speculated that President Obama's decision to kill Osama bin Laden would lead to an increase in Obama's poll numbers. Some have gone so far as to say that this act has guaranteed his re-election.

Not so fast, please.

Most polls have showed a smaller than expected "bounce" for the President. I guess that after everyone went home from the parties celebrating the take-down of bin Laden, many went to buy gasoline and realized that it still cost $4.00 + per gallon.

Well, the main-stream media can't let their favorite liberal President down. They said he would get a bounce, and dammit, they got him one. An AP/GFK poll was released today which showed the President's overall approval shooting up to 60%! One small problem, though, the poll was heavily skewed to get Democrat respondents. Check out this post which notes that the poll had almost twice as many Democrat as Republican respondents.

That's what I like about our current media. If the news isn't telling the story they want told, they'll just make something up that fits their worldview.

As I've written many times, somewhere, Thomas Jefferson is weeping over the demise of the fourth estate.

RCSB Strikes Again

The news  today that Bolgen Vargas would be named as interim Superintendent of Rochester City Schools is quite amazing. An outside observer would have to assume that the School Board members are incapable of making a good decision regarding school leadership.

Teacher's Union President Adam Urbanski welcomed the news. Frankly, that's about all you need to know regarding the wisdom of this choice. Vargas is a former President of the RCSB and is currently a guidance counsellor in the Greece School District.

I don't like Tom Richards much, but I'd say the time for Mayoral control of the City Schools has definitely come.