Trump didn't kill conservatism, George W. Bush claimed he did

Read about it here.

Matt Latimer forgets that the Clintons win only by pluralities

In other words, Clintons win only when they can successfully divide the opposition, usually along the conservative/libertarian fault lines of taxes, sex and trade. Right now, however, it is Hillary who is more than decisively on the wrong side of an issue which divides her side. She's been dumped before for the better candidate, and can be again.

Here:

Much is now being made of a CNN poll finding that a majority of Americans—57 percent—do not believe Hillary Clinton is honest or trustworthy. But is that really news? Roughly half of the country has felt that way for a long time. Forty-three percent of Americans said that a year ago. And forty-six percent said that back in 2007. Under the headline, “Hillary Clinton’s honesty problem,” an earnest reporter for The Hill newspaper asks, “Is it possible to win the White House if more than half the electorate thinks you’re dishonest?” Uh, of course, it is, people. The Clintons do this all the time.

If Romney Still Has To "Come Up With A Rationale For November" He's Already Finished

So Michael Walsh here:

[T]o call corporate restructuring “jobs creation” won’t fly. Romney is going to have to come up with a far more persuasive, positive rationale for his candidacy if he hopes to beat Barack Obama in November.

What we are witnessing with this weak field of Republicans is a Republican Party "redefined" and ruined by George W. Bush himself, as Matt Latimer famously told us, because for eight years it consisted in and ended in a gross repudiation of the American idea, of capitalism, and failed utterly.

None of the candidates has the courage nor the conviction to say so. And because of that, they have nothing to say to us.

Which makes the moment incredibly awkward, because Obama has nothing to say to us either.

"There is no conservative movement."

If Newt really were smart, he'd attack that.

Matt Latimer Doubts Obama is a Closet Muslim . . .

. . . and just about everything Joe McGinniss says about Sarah Palin in a new book, here.

When Matt starts doubting Obama is a secular humanist, then we're all in trouble.

Just for fun, here's a screen shot of the Fox News poll of 911 registered voters from late August showing 71 percent of Republicans don't want Sarah to run for president:

"I Redefined the Republican Party"

"Let me tell you something. I whupped Gary Bauer's ass in 2000. So take out all this [conservative] movement stuff. There is no movement.

"Look, I know this probably sounds arrogant to say, but I redefined the Republican Party."    (source: Matt Latimer)

"And I redefined my foot in your ass"

George Bush: Mushy-Headed Liberal

George W. Bush has been beating his little isolationism, protectionism and nativism drum for years now, but it seems like conservatives such as Laura Ingraham are finally looking at it in the right way. She's even suggesting that if we knew in 2000 what we know today about George and his family (people should be free to marry anyone they love), maybe conservatives wouldn't have supported W back in the day.

I know I didn't. I admit it. I was one of the few, the proud, the (top!) 500,000 Americans who voted for Pat Buchanan in 2000. And I've still got the lawn sign to prove it! In 2004 I had to be drawn kicking and screaming to vote for Bush. The alternative was too horrible to contemplate (a man who won't stop for stop signs while behind the wheel of his Jeep is a dangerous man, willing to break any law), as it was also too horrible to contemplate in 2008, as events prove everyday.

Bush's continuing antagonism against, for example, advocates of border security doesn't surprise me, and Laura is right to perceive that his sort of Republican poses a threat to the policy initiatives championed by Tea Partyers and conservatives. Her show this morning is devoting considerable time to Bush's remarks at Southern Methodist University on January 24th.

But Bush was making similar remarks already in November 2010 in Britain as part of his book tour, and Pat Buchanan eviscerated him way back in March 2008 for the very same kind of loose and silly talk:

In smearing as nativists, protectionists and isolationists those who wish to stop the invasion, halt the export of factories and jobs to Asia, and stop the unnecessary wars, Bush is attacking the last true conservatives in his party.

Which is understandable. For after the judges and tax cuts, what is there about Bush that is conservative? His foreign policy is Wilsonian. His trade policy is pure FDR. His spending is LBJ all the way. His amnesty for illegals is Teddy Kennedy's policy.

The truth is George Bush hasn't changed, and has never been a conservative. Ever true to his self-described role as The Decider, he once boasted that he would be the one who decided what is Republican and what isn't:

"That conservative movement stuff is over. I've redefined the Republican party."

Even liberals have recognized Bush as one of their own. So Richard Cohen in The Washington Post in 2007, after cataloguing Bush's liberal intentions in No Child Left Behind, in affirmative action hires in his administration, and even in the Iraq war, he adds:

You only have to listen to Bush talk about the virtues of immigration -- another liberal sentiment -- or his frequent mention of the "soft bigotry of low expectations" to appreciate that the president is a sentimental softie, what was once dismissively called a "mushy-headed liberal."

Cohen leaves out Bush's greatest liberal achievement: Drugs for Seniors, the single largest expansion of federal government to that time since Lyndon Johnson. He leaves it out because that's what really drives liberals crazy, how George Bush out-liberaled the liberals, and co-opted them for eight years.

That's why they really hated him.