"Saving the Republicans: The 'Young Guns' Go For It"

[paul718]

Since November, I've heard Newt Gingrich and other GOP heavy-hitters talk about the Republican governors as the GOP's best pool of talent.  I haven't agreed.  I truly believe the House is where our leader(s) will come from.  Here's an article from the July 26th-31st issue of The Economist anointing Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, and Kevin McCarthy as the ones to lead the GOP out of its slump.  As chairman and grand poo-bah of the Paul Ryan Fan Club, I thought I'd share it with you.

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[paul718]

I generally agree with the Young Guns on where I want the GOP to go. Wherever we go on all the other issues I am convinced that at the core shrinking the size of the state is an important element no matter what. I think they left out yet another figure or potential competitor, although slightly older and that is Mike Pence. I beleive the four of them together have one heck of a future in the party and I beleive the success of further defeat of the GOP will be determined by how successfull they are. Like the young guns, Pence also differentiates from the Bush ere Big-gov't conservatism. Unlike the Young guns who preferred to keep quiet and work there way up to a point where they would have the power to do something, Pence spoke out frequently coming in only second to Jeff Flake as a nuisance to the leadership and yet still managed to get appointed as head of the Conference 3rd most powerful position.

Oh, absolutely.  I'm a Pence fan as well.  My only guess as the why The Economist left him out is because he comes off as less cerebral, and more of a "politician", than the other three.  Pence also tends to drift into moral territory every so often, an area most agree that the GOP should try to avoid.

[paul718]

Young Guns or not they are still beholden to the same failed reactionary dogma of their elders

Until such time as Republicans lead their party towards the sanity of its moderate midwestern and northeastern roots, the party both deserves, and needs, to die

I don't get this.  While we can expect the delivery and specificities to change, the underlying political theories will not.  They are "conservatives" for a reason. 

Tell me, what was so dynamic and fresh about the ideas of Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama?

[paul718]

Young Guns or not they are still beholden to the same failed reactionary dogma of their elders

Until such time as Republicans lead their party towards the sanity of its moderate midwestern and northeastern roots, the party both deserves, and needs, to die

I don't get this.  While we can expect the delivery and specificities to change, the underlying political theories will not.  They are "conservatives" for a reason. 

Tell me, what was so dynamic and fresh about the ideas of Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama?

I just know this much. I'll take the pragmatically center-left Obama over the last eight years of governance with all the finesse of an idiologically-driven cackhanded inept, aided and abetted with no checks and balances from within the congressional GOP whatsoever. All they appear to be atoning for, on the part of George W Bush, is the spending!

There's no evidence of Obama being either pragmatic or center-anything during his time in Congress.

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I think you're overestimating Obama's victory among moderates.  There was a huge anti-Republican vote, Obama's flawless campaign, McCain's flawed campaign, Sarah Palin, and the all-around electricity that was "Obama".

You're right about Democratic power being attributed to moderates.  Good work by the Dems, and I wish the GOP was as effective.  But Pelosi is not a moderate and is a face of the party. 

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From where a lot of people are sitting, an $800B spending bill and single-payer health care are very radical.

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Have Ryan or Cantor said those things?