Conservatives have lost our political credibility. We have totally squandered opportunity after opportunity over the years because self-interest and ambition have eroded the integrity of Conservative politicians along with Liberal ones. And blind political stupidity in the Republican Party created a mess of alienated constituencies, including African Americans. P.J. O’Rourke wrote in The Weekly Standard (aptly titled “We Blew It”):

An entire generation has been born, grown up, and had families of its own since Ronald Reagan was elected. And where is the world we promised these children of the Conservative Age? Where is this land of freedom and responsibility, knowledge, opportunity, accomplishment, honor, truth, trust, and one boring hour each week spent in itchy clothes at church, synagogue, or mosque? It lies in ruins at our feet, as well it might, since we ourselves kicked the shining city upon a hill into dust and rubble.

O’Rourke goes on to[...]

You’re going to hear quite a bit from the left over ‘the death of conservatism’ over the next few weeks. But they’ve got it wrong. I say, what we’ve got is the death of compromised conservatism as espoused by George W Bush, his father, GHW Bush, and by more recently, John McCain.

This morning, we see a post from Helen Valois at Renew America, who calls this ‘conservative conservatism’. I can quibble with the name she chooses, but not her meaning…

What is conservative conservatism? It is a commitment to playing a good defense (or rather — except for the one, brief, shining moment of Governor Palin’s acceptance speech — a pretty flawed defense) when your opponents have gone decisively on the offensive. It is that which John McCain quintessentially represents — the recalcitrant[...]

Not that it’s that big of a deal, but we hit 10,000 visitors sometime in early October… it took 11 months to hit that milestone. Today, we hit 15,000 visitors. 5,000 in the past month. I can’t imagine what would cause so much interest in our site this past month.

We also in the latter part of October posted our 500th article. We think that’s just the tip of the iceberg, and hope to see significant growth as we develop The Conservative Reader over the next year.

In noting these milestones, I just want to thank the writing team for TCR: Thomas Laryea, DJ Durant, Dr. Bob Stouffer, Renea Smith, and BitHead. You have[...]

An anonymous writer at The Real Sporer Tuesday night made an interesting observation that I think we should not only understand but build an action plan upon.

At the end of the second Presidential Debate there were a few trailing comments at Ted’s site (including one from yours truly), and the final one at about 12:20 AM stated:

I feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Instead of repeating “there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home”
I find myself repeating “Maybe democrats aren’t so bad, maybe[...]

Welcome to the new look for The Conservative Reader!
We’ve implemented a new WordPress theme to help provide a cleaner and easier to read look.
Although we’ll be tweaking the site over the next several weeks, please observe the following changes:

I’m hoping that the fact you have come to this web site means that you care more about government than the average person.  If you care about government, how we do government, and who is doing the work of government on our behalf, then this article is for you.
I’ve alluded to this before, and I [...]

More like “Over A Barrel”.  But now that we’ve taken the first step toward off-shore drilling in the US, the impact is already seen.  Because it’s really not about supply-side economics as much as perceived supply-side economics.  And now the perception is that the supply won’t be in a strangle hold any longer.
President Bush takes [...]

I am surprised I didn’t see more blogs lit up over this today (Allahpundit over at Hot Air did hit on it, though).
The Supreme Court was wrong.
That is, Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion in Kennedy v. Louisiana, was wrong.  If you recall, Kennedy wrote in his opinion (discussed here last week) that
Thirty-seven jurisdictions—36 [...]

This month’s Imprimis features a speech by John O’Sullivan, executive editor of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and one-time special advisor to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
O’Sullivan’s speech provides a valuable lesson in the history of Thatcher’s leadership and the power of privatized industry in building an entrepreneurial society, and how this can stimulate a stagnated [...]

I’m still getting caught up on things political. Like, Laura Ingraham is now doing a weekly show on Fox called “Just In”. I have yet to see it, but if you’re a fan of her radio program, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
Speaking of Laura’s radio show, evidently she’s in the middle of some [...]