Last week was a turning-point—the week when Republicans take the offensive in the race for the White House and control of Congress. They needed someone to step up, show some guts and close the trap set on the Democrats by the President. They came through. I am not sure whether it was intentional or if the trap just appeared because of circumstances, but it was there. Conventional wisdom still says that this will be a Democrat year, that the American people think the country is on the wrong track and want change. So how with everything going against him, did the President lure the Democrats into the trap?

In the beginning of the summer it looked as though the President would have a mutiny on his hands. Several Republican senators and representatives were quoted in the media as leaning toward a recall of troops from Iraq. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid was telling everyone that the war was lost. The mainstream media were happily reporting President Bush was a lame duck with historically low poll numbers. This forced the President to look for a new strategy in Iraq. Imagining the American people were on their side, the Democrats began to drop all pretense of moderation and run to the left.

Then the president changed leadership in Iraq, his new commander, General Petraeus proposed the “surge..” Screams from the Democratic base were loud; “Doesn’tBush understand the American people voted against this?” The media spent weeks saying the president was out of touch, there was no way the Congress would go along with him. The president was up against a unified Democrat party. He was not going to get his way. As usual the mainstream media and :conventional wisdom were wrong.

The “Move On” ad in the New York Times was the bait in the trap that led to the turning-point—and should still be exploited this week. The GOP should find someone with the same backbone as General Petraeus to spring the trap. How? A huge majority of Republicans in Congress should condemn the “Move On” ad and demand the Democrats do the same.

Next they should press the point that the New York Times gave Move On a one hundred thousand dollar discount to print the ad! This shows there is a concerted effort on the left to secure defeat for America. That this is not the first time since the war started that the Democrats and their allies have sided with our enemies over the military. Remember
Dick Durbin standing up for enemy combatants and comparing our military to the Nazi’s, Stalin or Pol Pot from the floor of the Senate? Remember the New York Times publishing top-secret military intelligence on the front page?

The mainstream media and the Democrats will try to counter by saying the GOP is questioning their patriotism. So what! That’s what they said in the beginning of the war, and I have seen nothing since to prove the GOP was wrong in its questions. If it was the first time this mainstream media and the Democrats sided with our enemies it would be difficult to prove but there are numerous occasions in the recent past that show the Left’s anti-Americanism. The person Republicans use as spokesman must point out that it is the Left that has invested heavily in banking that the United States will lose this war.

After all, it was the Left, the mainstream media and Democratic leaders in cabal who their heads in this trap with an aid that had the nerve to call General Petraeus a liar and hint he was a toady who would “betray us”—tantamount to calling him a traitor publicly. The American people will not stand for the attacks on our military or a political strategy that beckons America to surrender! It is up to the Republicans to focus public attention on this and force the Democrats to answer hard questions.

It should be happening now. There is no way the Democrats can get out of the trap. But we have to have one Republican be the point man. There are nine men running for President, here is a chance for one to be a leader. Will it happen? This nation’s future and the war on terror depend on it.

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The GOP has one chance of winning back Congress and holding on to the Whitehouse, and that is to embrace the war on terror and not run from it. I know the conventional wisdom is to pretend that President Bush and the war don’t exist and to admit it was wrong, but that is the recipe for disaster. The American people are taking a second look at the war in Iraq, but if there is no alternative presented to the anti-war “mainstream media” bias, that bias will paint much of history’s picture. The GOP has a chance to take the initiative if they get behind the most popular part of the federal government, the military!

In a New York Times poll—the day before General Petraeus gave his report to Congress—an overwhelming majority of the American people voted to trust the military to handle the war over the congress, 68% to 21%. To take advantage of the report and the pro-patriotic surge against the New York Times and Democrats, the GOP and its candidates must keep the pressure on. Thus, it is time for Republicans to embrace the war in Iraq and remind America that Iraq is a battle in the war on terror, not flee from it. While George W. Bush’s poll numbers are low at 31%, the Congress’s numbers are even lower at an unheard of 3%. In contrast the public’s rating of the military stands at 80%.

Accordingly, it’s no brainier as to whom the Republicans should side with. .

Where are the political consultants directing Republicans to take credit for what is happening now? Without knowing it, the media have been the Republicans best friend. It has been weeks since reports of large numbers of fatalities have led the newscasts. Yet where are the GOP’s claims that the country is on the right track in Iraq? Where are the Republican congressional leaders touting that things are going well? If it stays this quiet on the war front for another two to three months, aren’t we in fact beyond the turning-point?

Which means: wasn’t the President right?

Isn’t this what winning the war will look like?

The American people won’t know it unless the Republicans claim it.. And they won’t know it until and unless Republicans make that point.

The biggest disappointment of the Bush administration; has been their ineffective lack of communications.

The administration either won’t—or can’t—tell America all the good things that have come about because of the Presidents policies. When you are in the fifth year of a boming economy and the American people only give you a 30% positive rating in the polls for your handling of the economy, you have failed to get your message out!

Republicans can’t allow that deficiency to continue, unless they want to lose everything. The GOP has learned that it cannot rely on him to blow his own horn so the party will have to do it for him. Republican candidates are going to have to carry his legacy no matter what, so why should they let their enemies write it?

Ronald Reagan showed us how. We have to go right to the American people. We are in the beginning of a presidential campaign. With all due credit to Rudy Giuliani, last week he took the offensive and the Democrats and the New York Times are still reeling.

The Republican have to keep it up, keep giving out the real facts and set the agenda.

We will know it’s working when we hear the screams from the left!

Where does this defeatism come from? Everywhere you turn there are talking heads and even some Republicans conceding the next Presidency to the Democrats. I see it on TV in the papers and in blogs, and it’s getting me sick! Do I have to remind you all that.it was just 3 years ago that W was reelected and the word realignment was being thrown around to explain the Republican victories? Bush 43 went against history in two of the three elections His first midterm was historic, taking the majority back in the Senate which had been lost because of a defector—and the second getting reelected and keeping his majority in both houses.

Remember the red and blue maps? How can anyone think the country is so shallow that it can turn its politics around in one midterm election cycle? What happened in 2006 ranked average with last off-year elections in two-term presidencies. .

Why now is it supposed to mean doom? It’s not because the Democrats are winning their agenda in Washington. The IRS is more popular than Congress. The more the Democrats try to pass their agenda the more they’re reminding people why voters had thrown them out earlier.

Is it the unpopular war? Well as I wrote over a month ago the war is now something that should be embraced by the GOP, not only because it is almost time to claim victory but because by next years elections it won’t be front page material. The so-called mainstream media prove my point every day when there is no mention of Iraq on the nation’s front pages or leading off the evening network news. There’s a duly elected government in Iraq. All sides are cooperating to bring an end to violence and to share the wealth from their massive oil reserves.

Is everything perfect? No, it’s on the right track.

Were the Republicans correct to stand with the troops and trust the force of freedom? Yes.

Is North Korea at the table and (at least) pretending to be part of the world? Yes.

Is Iran a problem? Yes! Can we afford to allow them to build a nuke? No.

Republicans were correct in all these cases and Democrats look like the 1960’s radicals they used to be. And worst of all the Democrats told all who would listen that the United States had already lost in Iraq before the surge even went into effect. The American people will remember this for decades. National security will continue to be their weakness for generations as it has been since the 60’s.

Maybe it’s the economy that scares Republicans.

Is unemployment is at a record low? Have markets regained the losses from the tech bubble? Are interest rates are still low? Every time :bad news” emanates from “mainstream news” there is a reversal within days of “surprising numbers” proving the economy is not really as bad as they thought.

We were told the job outlook was bad and the economy was slowing until the numbers for October came out and there was a “surprise” again. Here is a quote from November 2nd Wall Street Journal “October was the strongest non-farm employment gain in 5 months. It follows news of the strongest GDP gain in six quarters from earlier this week”

More: “Hard evidence on the economy meanwhile, continues to show amazing resiliency.”

Not only is the housing “crisis” overblown but the situation will not even be talked about by the next election.

Look, it’s never easy to win the presidency but regularly the American people choose conservatism over liberalism. Bill Clinton ran as a supposed “moderate” southern Democrat and never received 50% of the vote. So, explain to me then how Hillary will get more running as a east coast liberal.

The two Democratic frontrunners are the weakest candidates to be put up by a party in decades. Senator Obama is a leftist socialist and babe in the woods where foreign policy is concerned. He is the candidate of one of the most corrupt political organizations of all time, the Cook County Democratic party.

We haven’t scratched the surface of that party’s malfeasance yet.. Senator Clinton is where she is because of who her husband is. These aren’t candidates who bring big ideas or experience. They are celebrities who stress one issue—“cut and run” from the war. And on this they have been proven wrong. .

The only thing that can hurt GOP chances of retaining the White House is a third party run from a pro lifer because the party ignored its base. While it’s a possibility, why do we assume that the GOP base has changed from 3 years ago?

Some might have been disillusioned but there is nothing better at bringing us together than those left-wingers who hate America and everything it stands for.

All in all I say the outlook is great for a GOP victory in 2008. I have won two dinner bets in a row 2000 and 2004. I have already made my dinner bet for this election and once again aim to collect.

==>George Washington