You know the old rule of thumb in politics was for each party during the primaries, you go gangbusters here as far extreme to the left or right as you need to to get your base and get the nomination, then the old Nixon theory, and once you go to the general, you moderate and move to the center.

And that’s a formula, and the formula has been shown to be beaten. You can beat this formula. Now, the reason that people say that the formula is almost etched in
stone, and they’ll cite Reagan Democrats, for example. “Well, I mean here you had a bunch of people, Reagan Democrats, who crossed over and voted for Reagan.”

That’s the wrong way to look at it. Those Reagan Democrats were not undecided, they were not moderates, they were not independents, they were disaffected Democrats. They were Democrats upset at how far left the Democrat Party had gone, and they’re still out there, and they’re not voting for Obama in any of these primaries. They are voting for Hillary or they’re voting for whoever, but they’re not voting for Obama.

Now, they are not independents. The way to attract independents is not to be independent. The way to attract moderates is not to be moderate, by definition.

If you want to go get and win national elections, you simply articulate a clear-cut conservative agenda, and you’ll pick up every one of these so-called, or enough of them, Reagan Democrats that are with pure, unadulterated liberalism.

But you’re not going to get ’em if you go get ’em by trying to be what they are, which is Democrat with a little conservative here, a little liberalism there.

If those are the two choices, Democrats are going to stay with the Democrat Party. It’s just that simple.

I don’t know about you, but I get a little tired of hearing every year from the political pros, in the media, that all presidential elections are only about 20% of the population because that 20% of the population, the so-called independents, so-called moderates, they’re the ones with all the virtue, right?

They’re the ones that are smarter than everybody else, they’re the ones that are above everybody, and they’re the ones that are not ideological, they’re the ones that are not closed-minded. So you go out and you get those people. So 80% of the population is already accounted for, doesn’t matter, we know 40% are going Democrat, we know 40% are going Republican, and so we all have to play around for this 20% in the middle.

The way you go get the 20% in the middle is be rock-ribbed, staunch conservative. You contrast yourself with the members of their own party that they’re already dissatisfied with.

If you try to be like members of the other party and try to give them 50% of what they’re getting from their own party — because I maintain that moderates and independents are Democrats.

Because, by definition, if someone or some organization is not conservative, it’s by definition going to be liberal, not moderate, not independent, it’s going to be liberal, because liberalism is easy.

Liberalism takes no intellectual application. Liberalism is all about how you feel. Liberalism is all about making yourself feel good about yourself while you don’t solve diddly-squat. Liberalism is all about thinking you’re better than everybody else. Liberalism is all about thinking you’re smarter than everybody else. Liberalism is all about ignoring every failure of liberalism and asking instead for your good-hearted intentions to be examined and credited.

So, by definition, these people are not moderates and independents. They’re quite something else. You can attract them and get them because they’re not that committed.

All they need is a little leadership. All they need is a little guidance, confident, bravado, positive optimism, American exceptionalism.

They want to hear about how great their country is.

Most people don’t want to hear how rotten we are. Most people don’t want to hear what a sad-sack nation we are. Most people do not want to hear that we are to blame for every ill and bit of evil in the world. There are some that do, and those are rock-ribbed liberals and you’re never going to get them.

But hell… don’t cater to them; try to pick off a few of them here there.

They are to be defeated.

Let me give you some oil data here…

According to the US Department of Energy, US oil production has fallen approximately 40% since 1985, while US consumption has grown more than 30%. So in real barrels, US oil production is now below five million barrels a day. It was approximately nine million barrels a day in 1985.

So in 23 years — and see, it’s happened slow.

The market impact here has been slow, it’s been gradual, but we’ve cut our production in half in 25 years

— and, by the way, can I ask you a question?

In doing that, in those 25 years, global warming’s gotten worse, has it not? And in those 25 years the planet’s gotten dirtier, has it not? — According to what these anti-oil people say.

In the 25 years that we have stopped producing oil by half, we have cut our oil production in half, in 23 years; in those same 23 years, the environmentalist nuts, who are behind the anti-oil movement, keep telling us how rotten things are getting, how horrible things are getting, and we’re destroying the environment; the polar bears, the planet, you name it.

We’ve been getting the blame for it! Yet we’ve cut our production in half.

And you can see one of the results of this is the price that we’re all paying for this stuff, oil-related products today.

At the same time — while in the last 23 years we have cut our production in half, the government has put billions of barrels of domestic oil and natural gas off limits to domestic exploration.

According to federal government estimates, there is enough oil in the areas that we are now place off limits, 112 billion barrels to power more than 60 million cars for 60 years without importing a drop. It’s off limits. The government, because of the environmentalists. So we’re not producing this. We’re not getting this.

We’ve cut our own actual production in half in 25 years, and they still blame us for destroying the planet.

We keep hearing about ANWR.

Had President Clinton not vetoed exploration in ANWR in 1995 — oil was $19 a barrel in 1995 — America would currently be receiving over a million barrels a day from Alaska. Experts estimate that ANWR contains 5.6 to 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Okay, now at $123 a barrel —

And, by the way, ten years ago they said, “Well, it will take ten years to get the first drop. We can’t do it.” It’s been ten years or more. We’d have had it, it would be online.

Now they say, “It would be ten years if we start. We can’t count on that.” There are people, elected officials — Democrats and some Republicans and entire members of the leftist environmentalist organization — who don’t want this country to be energy sufficient and independent.

The environmental movement in this country is largely comprised of — the militant and nuts realm of it, consists of — displaced communists and socialists who want this country down to size because it’s not fair to everybody.

The Outer Continental Shelf in the United States contains over 44 billion barrels of oil, and 232 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Eighty-five percent of the outer continental shelf is off limits to domestic exploration.

Can I put it to you another way?

Forty-four billion barrels of oil and 232 trillion cubic feet of natural gas are out there just off the coast, and 85% of it is off limits to domestic production.

Yet we have this whining and moaning about dependence on foreign oil, and the resulting price increase.

In the Gulf of Mexico, there is enough natural gas to heat 60 million homes for another 160 years. Can you imagine that quantity? Sixty million homes for another 160 years! However, more than 85% of the coastal waters adjacent to the lower 48 states — which extend up 200 miles from our shores — are off limits to oil exploration.

Economic news: “The number of US workers filing claim for initial jobless benefits fell…”

FELL! This means that fewer people filed for unemployment compensation.

It “fell more than expected.” Is that just a template now, “more than expected“? It’s probably a keystroke, like Command-E. “More than expected.” Just do that rather than type the words. I mean, it’s like there’s a shell for these economic stories, and in every one of these stories it’s “more than expected.”

“This according to a report today that suggests the labor market, while soft, was not deteriorating rapidly.”

We’re not even in a recession!

The economy grew in the first quarter. We are not in a recession. Yet everybody thinks we are.

So jobless claims fell 18,000 in the latest week that they’ve been calculated these stats; and here’s the bottom line:

If liberals in Congress would get out of the way, the economy can do what it normally does, and that’s grow.

Today, ladies and gentlemen, I address the Democrat superdelegates. It must be apparent to you “supers” that Senator Obama will not lead you to victory in November (painfully, obviously), but you fear that denying him support will create a permanent fissure between black voters and the Democrat Party.

No Democrat has the courage to examine this flawed premise, so let me do it for you.

Consider these facts:

• President John Kennedy and his brother Robert wiretapped Dr. King. Blacks stayed with Democrats.

• Democrats stood in schoolhouse doors, vowing segregation forever; Democrats voted against landmark civil rights legislation that Republican votes passed. Blacks stayed with Democrats.

• Democrats created the welfare state, essentially destroying millions of black families. Blacks stayed with Democrats.

• Democrats bowed to teachers’ unions, ruining public education for generations of black kids — leaving them unequipped to participate as equals in American society. And yet, blacks stayed with Democrats.

• Democrats urged the early release of criminals, to further prey on law-abiding black citizens. Blacks stayed with Democrats.

• Democrats threw blacks under the bus during the immigration debate because Hispanics are now the largest minority voting block. Blacks stayed with Democrats.

• Democrats have not supported blacks achieving power — Carl McCall denied funds when he ran for New York governor; civil rights icon Maynard Jackson denied leadership at the DNC. Blacks, nevertheless, stayed with Democrats.

• Hillary mocked black speech; Bill pulled the race card. Blacks stayed with Democrats.

You superdelegates are worried about denying Obama support? You’ve done worse! And blacks have stayed with you — as they will this time. Have courage!

“Homes facing foreclosure more than doubled in the first quarter from 2007.”

Okay. You know what the number is? One out of every 194 homes foreclosed on in the first quarter. Do you know what percentage that is?

0.5%. Point five percent! One half of 1% of homes in this country are being foreclosed on — one half of one percent, or one out of every 194.

Crisis with 1/2 of a percent? – < WAKE UP PEOPLE… >

How do you make crisis with 1/2 a percent???

Reference: Homes facing foreclosure more than doubled in 1Q from 2007