Those of you in Michigan, just to give you an illustration, you have the presidential campaign going on there now, the primary campaign, and you’re hearing from all kinds of people about how Michigan is a one-state recession, and we’re going to fix it.

Romney‘s got his plan to fix it; McCain is offering his plan to fix it, not just Michigan, but the country.

But I need to ask those of you in Michigan, and I’m serious about this, a question. You know the dire economic consequences you face with the election of Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat legislature, and tax increase, after tax increase, after tax increase.

One of the things that really concerns me about Michigan is the automobile industry in this country is under assault by Americans. It’s under assault by Democrats, just by virtue of the fact that it’s a big corporation, or a series of big corporations.

It’s also under assault by Democrats on the basis of global warming, climate change, and mandating CAFE standards and other things that threaten to put the whole place out of business because it’s going to force people to buy cars that they don’t want to buy — and force GM and Ford, Chrysler, to make cars nobody wants to buy, all under the guise of saving the planet via climate change, which the man-made aspect of it is nothing but a hoax.

John McCain and a lot of Republicans are running around claiming that they are the new Reagan. But Reaganism and the Reagan era is over. So they’re asking us to accept that who they are and what they believe happens to be the new definition of conservatism, the new definition of Reaganism.

What is Senator McCain’s solution to the economic crisis in Michigan? Well, I’ll tell you what it is: massive, expensive regulation of the auto industry.

How?

Fuel economy mandates that are going to add up to essentially an $85 billion tax increase on the domestic auto industry. These CAFE laws, these CAFE standards have cost the industry thousands of jobs already when they were first imposed during the last oil panic in the 1970s. Senator McCain is right on board with this global warming climate change stuff, he’s right on board, and he’s pushing it, and he’s saying it’s the new conservatism.

 

How in the world do you want to become the Republican nominee if you have to do it by going out and getting the votes of independents and Democrats?

By the way, Democrats are being urged in Michigan, since their primary doesn’t count because they don’t get any delegates. They moved their primary up before when the party wanted them to, and so they’re being aced out of any delegates.

Hillary is the only one on the ballot. So the Democrat Party in Michigan is urging Democrats there to vote “uncommitted” to deny Hillary a victory.

I mean, it’s all convoluted.

But some of the things that I hear from people like Senator McCain, would continue to wreak havoc in Michigan. Now, in primaries, one of the problems you have is that impressions and image, perception count for a lot more than substance. You know, we’re going to get to the issues eventually once we get to the presidential race. Once we have both parties’ nominees, we’ll get to the issues. But that’s not going to happen ’til after Labor Day, folks, and those of you out there decrying and bemoaning the lack of issues, get used to it.

This is what primaries are, and always have been.

People don’t have the emotional stamina to stay closely in touch with all of this, issue-wise, for as many months as it’s going to be, 11 months. They just don’t have the stamina, plus don’t have the interest.

So right now image and impression and perception are what’s counting. Of course, to independents and Democrats, the idea of a McCain (and to a lesser extent Huckabee) who are not strictly tied to the Republican Party and conservatism, why, that’s a godsend, because they have their clichéd dislikes and hatreds for conservatism, and we have a situation here where in these early states, Republicans aren’t even voting yet, particularly conservatives aren’t even voting.

We’re having independents and Democrats with a great say-so over who the Republican nominee is than Republicans.

But throw your party out. I don’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat in Michigan, you can’t possibly like what’s happening there.

You can’t possibly like the fact that you’ve had a one-state recession while the rest of the country has been relatively booming — and you better pay attention to what these people are saying that their plan for the country is, and what their plan specifically for the auto industry is.

I just watched some videotape. A big auto show in Detroit’s going on. GM just put on display its brand-new Corvette, 600 and some odd horsepower, V8, supercharged. They may not be able to make this car ever again if people like McCain get elected president, or any Democrat — and I kid you not. If these CAFE standards, 45 miles a gallon, become law and actually happens, and you think, “Oh, it’s not going to be that severe.”

Look at the lightbulb business…

Frank Beckmann, WJR Detroit, had this exchange this morning with Senator McCain.

BECKMANN: (via phone) I just don’t want the government telling me to use these fluorescent lightbulbs and — and —

McCAIN: The government is not doing that! The government is —

BECKMANN: That’s what that new energy bill does. By 2014 we’ve gotta change to those bulbs.

McCAIN: Well, uh, I think, very frankly, you’ll have a better lightbulb and a more efficient one.

McCain doesn’t even know that the energy bill mandates a switch from the incandescents to the compact fluorescents, and finds out of that it does from Frank Beckmann and then says, “It will be a better lightbulb! It’ll be a more efficient one!”

It’s the energy bill, and he doesn’t even know what’s in it!

So what’s in this energy bill that involves CAFE standards and so forth? I’m telling you, when GM can’t make the Corvette — and it’s got buyers. You have people who want them. You know what they’re going to have to do to keep selling the Corvette? They’re going to have to manufacture a whole bunch of tiny little bubble cars that nobody wants so that their fleet-wide CAFE standards meet these government targets.

We’ve got the government of California that wants to take over your thermostat. They want the utility companies to be able to regulate the temperature in your house based on what they think it ought to be, via radio control. You won’t have any control over your thermostat if this happens, and you say, “Oh, that’s never going to happen.”

Who woulda thought that a bunch of idiots would ban a lightbulb?

It’s happened in the energy bill.

If this thing ever does get implemented the way that it’s intended to be, people are going to be stunned and shocked here. So, you know, folks, especially those of you in Michigan;

Forget personalities, thinking of yourselves here. Most people do. Think of your state. Think of what’s going to happen if people who want to turn this country into some sort of signatory to the Kyoto protocol without actually signing it. What’s it going to do to the number one industry in your state, which is already devastated? And it’s a target. It’s understandable the Democrats would target the auto industry because it’s industry and it’s big business. But for Republicans to start targeting, that’s when your ears have to perk up.

The pundits are all singing the McCain chorus. They’re proclaiming he is the only one who can win a head-to-head election with any Democrat.

Dick Morris wrote: “McCain’s record taps into a latent populism that attracts Republicans, Democrats and Independents. His battle against big tobacco, efforts to address global warming, opposition to torture during interrogations and fight to reform corporate governance and to protect investors and pensioners appeal to voters of all stripes.”

The fact that he’s for blatant across-the-board amnesty; the fact that he is opposed to the Bush tax cuts doesn’t seem to matter at all.

For those of you in Michigan,

George Will column: “Tuesday’s Republican primary is in one of the nation’s worst-governed states. Under a Democratic governor, Michigan has been taxed into a one-state recession. Native son Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate who best understands how wealth is created, might revive his campaign by asking: Who do you want to be president in 2010 when the Bush tax cuts, which McCain opposed, expire? Can automakers endure more regulations such as the fuel efficiency mandates that climate-fixers such as McCain favor? Do you want a president (Mike Huckabee, proponent of a national sales tax of at least 30 percent) pledged to radically increase the proportion of federal taxation paid by the middle class? Republicans should try to choose the next president. They cannot avoid choosing how their party will define itself, even if by a loss beneath a worthy banner.”

Romney and these guys are going to stay in this until we get to genuine primaries where only Republicans vote and where most of the Republicans in these states are conservative. Romney‘s got the money to stay in. I think Thompson‘s going to stay in until we actually get to conservative Republicans voting in a primary. Just keep in mind that McCain, and I think to a lesser extent Huckabee, are seeking actively the votes of these Democrats and these independents.

All these people are trying to redefine conservatism.

Conservatism is immutable; conservatism is not a scheme; it’s not a plan that you modify in order to bend and shape and fit the discourse of the American people.

That’s what liberalism or populism is.

Reference post: Populist Vs Conservative – Feelings Vs Thinking.