America Missed

By Steve Parkhurst

As the new year is now underway, the personal shock of the 2012 election has still not set in for me. In my mind I keep re-playing this brief speech excerpt from Paul Ryan just before the November election:

PAUL RYAN: “Our commitment is really clear. We’re saying here are the solutions; here are the principles we’re going to use; here’s our proven bipartisan track record of actually delivering results and getting things done; here’s what we’re going to do. And I’ve got to tell you, 2013 could be a renaissance in America, in the world and in America. 2013 can be the year we get our economy growing, we start creating 12 million new jobs, we put these pro-growth policies in place and we reaffirm the American idea by electing Mitt Romney the next President of the United States.” – Full kudos to Breitbart for the video and transcript.

Time will tell, but as of now, I feel like America missed as great opportunity with a Romney Presidency. Not only would Barack Obama not be a President with nothing to fear as he will never again appear on a ballot, but we still do not have a credible business, a CEO-type in the Oval Office. We have an excuse maker with no track record of accomplishments and no history of being held accountable for failure. Mitt Romney may not have turned out to be the next Ronald Reagan or Calvin Coolidge, but he would have been a tremendous improvement over the current President.

Now, we’ll never know. This video keeps reminding me of the great opportunity we had in 2012 and beyond.

America missed.

Paul Ryan Interview with Hugh Hewitt 10-2-12

Earlier today, Paul Ryan spoke with Hugh Hewitt. Take a listen to the interview.

Paul Ryan Interview with Hugh Hewitt 9-26-12

On Wednesday, Congressman Paul Ryan was in Colorado but he made a few minutes to talk with Hugh Hewitt. Enjoy the interview below, and share it with your network.

DeMint might throw Akin a lifeline

The Hill reports today that Senator Jim DeMint may yet rally the troops to Congressman Todd Akin’s side. A few key passages:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) will attend a $500-per-plate fundraiser for Akin on Monday. He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Republicans need Missouri to win the Senate.

“I don’t see how the Republicans are going to win the Senate if they throw away a seat like Missouri,” he said.

Missouri Republicans have a bold streak of social conservatism — Rick Santorum handily defeated Romney in the Missouri primary — and they have shown far more willingness to stick with Akin than GOP leaders in Washington.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has a strong following among social conservatives, slammed party leaders in August for abandoning Akin.

Polls show Akin has kept pace with McCaskill despite the decision by the NRSC and the pro-GOP super-PAC Crossroads GPS to pull television ads in the state.

A survey by Rasmussen Reports last week showed McCaskill with a 6-point lead, 49 percent to 43.

But DeMint said polls show Missouri is a more likely Republican pick-up than Maine.

“The polls would suggest it is,” he said.

DeMint and Cornyn clashed during the 2010 election cycle, when DeMint supported conservative insurgents such as Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Cornyn backed more centrist candidates.

If you’re so inclined, click on the sticker below and consider a contribution to the Senate Conservatives Fund.

Todd Akin Ad: McCaskill Asks, ‘You don’t trust me?’

Todd Akin has released this new ad about his opponent. This seems like an effective, smart way to go after Air Claire.

Todd Akin Ends Apology Tour

Missouri congressman and US Senate candidate Todd Akin, has ended his apology tour. Good.

In a press conference late Friday, Akin confirmed that he is in the race to stay. At this point, we all know what Akin said, no need to rehash that. His apology tour was a waste of time, he lost a week of campaigning, but he appears to be ready to stop apologizing and start talking substance and policy with Claire McCaskill, who is unqualified to discuss either of those.

Congressman Akin didn’t speak for very long, and this was one of the better points he made:

“I may not be the favorite candidate of some people within the Republican establishment, but the voters made their decision,” said Akin. “I think America has gotten into trouble because we’ve paid too much attention to politics and not enough attention to principle.” (via Mediaite)

Now, it’s time to move forward toward November. We need to get Todd Akin elected to the United States Senate. Senator Claire McCaskill has been too problematic for way too long. Sending Air Claire into retirement is a major objective we need to rally around and accept.

As an aside, (and maybe the bigger point) those of us on the conservative side of the spectrum must stop caving to the media. Just because the media has a question, doesn’t mean that question needs to be answered. I have questions for Rachel Maddow, the first question will likely answer the rest of the questions, but those questions don’t deserve to be answered with any greater authority than any member of the parasitic left-wing media.

The apology tour for a dumb comment created zero jobs. The apology tour did not increase the GDP. The apology tour did not bring down the cost of gasoline. The apology tour did not remove any of the over-burdensome regulations that are strangling small businesses in America. Get off of this nonsense, the statement was made, apologized for, and we could continue debating it for the next 70+ days, or we can take the fight to the Left and let the voters decide in November.

I choose #War.

Romney Ryan Taking It To The Blue States

Paul Ryan in PA GPH-Consulting.com photo by — Photo by Justin Merriman, Tribune-Review

By all accounts, including Salena Zito’s stellar reporting, Paul Ryan made a very successful trip to Pennsylvania on Tuesday, while at the same time Mitt Romney was in Houston where he raised $6 million. That’s a nice haul (see the earlier post about that).

Paul Ryan was in Roanoke, Virginia on Wednesday before heading to North Carolina for stops there, along with a fundraiser. Along the way, Congressman Ryan also did radio interviews with Hugh Hewitt (audio and transcript here) and Mark Levin (audio here). I loved it when Paul Ryan said in the interview:

“Hope and change has become attack and blame.”

Along with:

“I really believe, from the bottom of my heart, we can trigger an American renaissance.”

Now, out of Michigan comes good and interesting news:

New Michigan Poll has Romney ahead of Obama

Then out of Commerce, Michigan comes word that Romney and Ryan will both be in Michigan on Friday:

Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan to make campaign stop in Michigan

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are stretching the map, they are competing in places they weren’t supposed to compete. Blue states are indeed feeling blue, don’t expect the news outlets to cover this, but it’s happening, all you have to do is follow the candidates’ travels. If Obama/Biden has to spend money in these states, that in and of itself will be a great thing as their campaign starts to hemorrhage cash (if you missed it, here’s the story about Obama/Biden campaigning just as they govern, by spending $10 million more than they raised in July). Winning these states will be an even greater thing.

GOP Fumbles Marketing Paul Ryan Opportunity to Hispanic Media

This column originally appeared at Texas GOP Vote:

By Artemio Muniz

Paul Ryan’s rise to the national mainstream has given the GOP a great chance to market its approach to the nation’s problems. Unfortunately in the last days, Republicans have dropped the ball when it comes to controlling the narrative put forward by Univision, the Spanish media giant. The current accusation by the Spanish media against Romney is that he has doubled down on his lack of concern for the Latino vote by choosing an extreme right winger like Paul Ryan. One consultant claims that Paul Ryan’s selection is a “hasta la vista, baby” to Hispanic voters. These accusations are defined as “Hispanic media attacks” by some conservative bloggers.

It’s not the “Hispanic media” stupid, it is conservatives not showing up to battle for the hearts and minds of viewers. It’s infuriating to watch golden opportunities like these slip by, where our lack of serious presence leads to having other forces define us. We should always be on offense, fighting for every single vote.

The truth is Paul Ryan is a problem solver, and his immigration solution would be more in line with our Texas solution on immigration from our Texas Republican platform. Paul Ryan supports a guest worker program. This is huge. Who shows more concern for Hispanics? Paul Ryan who supports keeping hard workers here with a temporary guest program or a two faced Obama who divides families and deports in record numbers?

The answer is easy to the Hispanic community. The fact that he promised immigration reform but deported in record numbers makes for a nuclear talking point that would crush or seriously hinder any get out the vote efforts of the Democrats. Throw in Fast and Furious and the deal is done. If Republicans at the national level could only modernize, or acquire the talent needed to express these talking points we would own the narrative in Spanish and all Hispanic media. In Houston, our Federation of Hispanic Republicans have been able to dismantle the Democrats on immigration in the media .

They no longer bring it up.