Manning Up … A Roadmap for Victory

Scott Brown pulled the upset of the century last week in winning the race for the vacant U.S. Senate seat here in Massachusetts. He did it by “manning up.” He stated his views clearly and succinctly. He opposed “ObamaCare”; he came out for tax cuts to stimulate the economy and to create jobs; he supports a strong military; he opposes civilian trials for enemy terrorists; he opposes the closing of the Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison; he opposes the much-dis­cussed cap and trade plan; he sup­ports Second Amendment rights and is rated A by the National Rifle Association; he opposes partial-birth abortion and believes we need to reduce the number of abortions in America; and he be­lieves

marriage is between a man and a woman.

Now there it is, Scott’s posi­tions, clearly stated with no am­biguities. Is it no wonder he won nearly 70% of the vote in Norfolk? All his positions make good com­mon sense and this is why he won. Clarity of message; no double talk. Quickly now, what did Mar­tha Coakley talk about? Abortion, ObamaCare, and being a good Democratic follower when arriv­ing in Washington; nothing else. That’s it; if there were any other messages, I missed them, and so did everyone else. So the message going forward is simply this: Candidates, if you want to be taken seriously, stand up for your beliefs, and when chal­lenged stand by them. Also, when your opponent goes negative you stay forcefully positive. That’s a winning strategy!

A National

Republican Strategy

Now is the time to get rolling not only for 2010 but for 2012 also. For 2012 I am going to sug­gest a radical change in Repub­lican strategy. (They had none in the last election.)

The worst thing that can hap­pen is a three- or four-way blood bath. The Republican leadership must come together; they must check their ego at the door; they must debate who is the strongest and most electable and soundest presidential candidate; and all of them must give him their total support starting now.

They must do this to save our nation. We cannot delay. We must make strong gains in Con­gress, neutralize President Barack Obama, and prevent him from fur­ther misdirection, miscalculation, and poor decision making. Imag­ine spending an entire year trying to enact the bloated mess referred to as “ObamaCare,” while the un­employment rate soared.

Our foreign policy is a disas­ter. We are paralyzed by Iran and North Korea’s bold march toward becoming nuclear extortionists. We need to decide on our presi­dential

candidate now and then he needs to “Man-Up” loudly and clearly and then we need to sweep the rapscallions currently in Washington out the door.

My choice would be Mitt Rom­ney. He’s the pick of the litter. Then we need to propose these steps as articulated by Dan DiMic­co,

chairman and chief executive officer of Nucor Corporation, a steel producer in North Carolina, in a recent column in The Wall Street Journal (“A Nation That ‘Builds Things’,” December 15, 2009).

1. Replace foreign sources of energy with domestically pro­duced energy. Oil imports account for about half our trade deficit.We must encourage drilling for oil and natural gas; we must construct dozens of new nuclear plants, while we continue research into wind, solar, and biomass. This will create millions upon millions of great-paying jobs not only in pro­duction but in the refineries and distribution also, and the monies stay right at home. Tax revenues will soar as we begin this massive undertaking. 2. Balance our trade deficit.We must have policies in place to enable us to have resurgence in domestic manufacturing. This will revitalize our middle class, who have been shafted as we offloaded our manufacturing base with di­sastrous results.

3. Rebuild outdated and un­safe infrastructure. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers we need to spend $2.2 trillion over the next five years to improve our country’s roads and bridges. If we choose not to, if we continue to ignore our infra­structure, we can look forward to having the wherewithal of a Third World nation. Mr. DiMicco feels this plan will help create twenty million jobs as we rebuild our economy, our country, and our middle class, get­ting

us back to being a nation that makes and builds things again.

We are facing the greatest eco­nomic crisis since the Great De­pression. The Republican Party must have a plan, a mission, a well-articulated solution to the morass we find ourselves in. We must reinvigorate the American pride in what we do. We must ex­cel, not be a nation of followers, like sheep trodding down a path. We must again be a nation that says if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. Without such a plan, without a clear recitation of our beliefs and goals, we’re no better than the other guys, as timid and feckless as they.

Now in closing, allow me two further comments, if you will. First, let’s go back in time to the first Clinton presidential term and revisit HillaryCare, concocted by a group of six hundred or so Demo­cratic

health delegates who met in secret to craft Hillary Clinton’s health care plan. Because of the secrecy and some other factors the plan quickly went down in flames.

Our current president, Barack Obama, knowing full well why HillaryCare bombed, vowed that everything to do with ObamaC­are would be done in the open. He promised on eight separate occasions that the final negotia­tions would be televised live on C-Span. Of course it didn’t happen. Instead, the Democrats negoti­ated in secret behind closed doors, making absurd deals in the dead of the night, and as the old saying goes, “the rest is history.”

Secondly, it’s time for another fearless prediction by yours truly. By spring or early summer Hillary Clinton will resign as Secretary of State and she will form a “Clinton for President” team, and will be­gin her run to unseat President Obama in the Democratic prima­ries, reasoning that she couldn’t possibly do a worse job than he is doing. Remember you read it here first. Or as in the case of a couple of my critics, you had it read to you while in restraints getting your happy pills.