Yesterday’s election results sent a strong message to Barack Obama and the power establishment in Washington.  But an even strong message was sent to the GOP.  Nominate people Conservatives can support and you will win big.  Keep propping up RINOs and you lose.

The message should have been clear with the 2008 nomination of John McCain.  Apparently the power brokers in NY23 didn’t get that message.  So without a primary or public support, they nominated an ACORN-backed, Abortion Supporting, Gay Marriage Supporting, Stimulus Supporting, Tax and Spend RINO.  To the NY23 GOP, power was more important than principle.  They have now lost both.

No, Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman didn’t win.  Whether it was the brevity of his campaign, the influx of national attention on a local race, or Scozzafava’s last minute support for the Democrat, we will never know.  But even in loss, the Conservative candidate won.  GOP precincts across the country will think long and hard about appointing one of their own instead of supporting the people.  Party label is no longer enough.  We won’t rubber stamp the GOP candidate any more.

Despite being outspent 3-1, Republican Chris Christie received nearly 100,000 votes more than Liberal Democrat Jon Corzine.  In a state that Barack Obama won easily and is strongly in the Blue category, Republicans can win when they have Conservative support.

The margin of victory in the Virginia governor’s race was even larger.  In a state that Barack Obama carried by 235,527 votes, Conservative Republican Bob McDonnell defeated his liberal challenger by 325,794 votes.  That’s a party swing of more than 560,000 votes (24%) and something that cannot easily be ignored.  If you want to understand the difference in these Party results just look at the difference between the Republican contenders – Bob McDonnell is a Conservative, John McCain clearly is not.

And in my little county in North Carolina, a school board that has been controlled by liberals for years saw Conservative momentum challenge it and change the balance of power in one election cycle.  Parents were fed-up with a ridiculous buearacracy that continually called for increased taxes and wasteful spending while ignoring the wills of its constituents.  And a so-called “diversity” program that was a nightmare for students and a challenge to common sense.

Even in the Hoffman loss, Conservatives won.  The message to Washington and the Republican Party is clear.  Listen to the people, stand on principles, be responsible with the power we have given you.  If you don’t, you will lose.

Saxby Chambliss won, and with his re-election, the Republicans stave off a filibuster-proof Senate. But you won’t find any celebrations in the American Elephant household. Am I glad Senator Chambliss won? When compared to his opponent, sure. But with the RINOs in the Senate, the Democrats don’t need 60 seats to be filibuster-proof, they are basically already there.

Still, its not the balance of power that leaves me less than inspired with a Chambliss win. My problem is Senator Chambliss himself. Chambliss is hardly a RINO by any standard, but elephants have long memories, and our own party should not be precluded from criticism or reflection. Lest we forget, Saxby Chambliss was one of the Gang of 10 who stabbed all of us Conservatives in the back when Domestic Drilling was a rallying cry for Americans across the country. When we had a winning issue and momentum at our back, it was Chambliss and a few others who sought to torpedo our efforts and surrender to Democrats with a loosely veiled attempt of so-called bipartisanship. Compromise is fine when both sides have merits, but there is no place to compromise when you are right, and there is never a time to compromise your principles.

Don’t let the media fool you.  Vying for the moderate vote is a losing issue.  John McCain’s candidacy proved it.  If you don’t have any core principles or values, then you have nothing.  That lack of principles is why Americans have so little faith in our elected officials and why the Republican Party has lost so much ground.  The time for so-called moderate voices or compromise for the sake of compromise is dead.  That unprincipled pull to the center is what led our country into record deficits, ridiculous bailouts and an utter lack of domestic integrity.  Values and principles are the only way to get us back.

So congrats Senator Chambliss for holding his seat.  Here’s hoping a Domestic-Drilling Supporter and staunch Conservative will take his place in six years.  We are called elephants for a reason… and this is one elephant who won’t forget.

Maritime Sentry points out a great post from the Draft Sarah Palin for Vice President site on Moving Forward.  I encourage everyone to read it.  My sentiments are mostly the same.

I am a Palin supporter.  I am also a Bobby Jindal supporter.  As charismatic conservatives who have records of real reform, I think the two of them offer great hope to the future of our Party.  But they are not alone.  There are other strong conservatives in America, and hopefully over the coming years a few of them will rise to the top and carry the party forward.  We must resist all attempts to move to the center and lose our soul.  That is a losing proposition every time it is tried.  The liberal media will try to persuade us otherwise, but make no mistake, John McCain was the case study of moving the party to the center and he failed… miserably.  George W. Bush tried to move to the center, and that lack of discipline and principle damaged his presidency.  The liberals are going to hate us either way, so we might as well have our dignity and principles in tact.  Its much easier to defend yourself when your position is not defenseless.

Our country has taken a serious step back, and over the next two years it could get much worse.  We are in no position to protect the judiciary, the military, the Constitution or the unborn.  We must fight to make sure we never find ourselves in this position again.

2010 is not a long way off.  That will be our first chance to push Conservative voices in Congress.  We must start now.  But this fight is more than just promoting candidates with the right ideas.  We have the chance to reshape the Republican Party and have it focus back on the core principles that matter.  The “first principles” of our founders.  The party is beholden to no one because the party lost.  Its not time to rebrand or renew, its time to rebuild and reform.  We need more discipline and integrity in Washington.  We need more values and responsibility.  Those are the same things we need from our party, and if we enforce within ourselves, we will get back into a place of prominence.

I vow to not give up the fight.  Will you join me?

Here’s an idea I can get behind.  I was thinking about this recently, Fred Thompson would provide great leadership and vision to the rebuilding of the Republican Party.  This would provide a quick answer to those who will want to move the party away from conservatism.  A focus on federalism wouldn’t be a bad thing either.

Republicans don’t just need a manager. Republicans need a communicator and a visionary. That’s Fred Thompson.

So, what if the Republican Party split the role within the RNC, tasking one of the potential candidates with the Management role, while Fred Thompson took the Leadership role? If there is any figure on our present stage who can credibly and powerfully take on Democratic leadership, it is Fred Thompson.

The progressives and netroots did not take over the Democratic Party by nominating Howard Dean for Presidential; they did it by putting Howard Dean in charge of the Democratic Party. If Republicans want to take back the Republican Party, then we may need to draft Fred Thompson again.

h/t: Instapundit.

Last night, Mayor Giuliani’s speech ran long and Governor Palin’s intro video was cut.  Here it is in case you haven’t seen it yet.

Here’s the original text.

McCain’s speech was good, got better as it went on.  Sure he’s not Obama… but we don’t want him to be.

I’m sure some people think the Code Pink Wacko Protestors are heros or something… but they are not, they are cowards.  The man on the stage is the hero, and the protestors looked all the smaller and out of touch for it.  Of course the cameras loved covering the protestors… no surprise there.  Hey Protest Wacko — You don’t like something in America?  Get involved, run for office, make your voice heard… but do it in a respectful way.  Otherwise you come across as small, petty and your argument is lost.  I guarantee you that the man on stage understand war and hates it more than you do.

Sarah Palin didn’t like how things were going in her home town, so she got involved.  From PTA to City Council to Mayor to Governor.  Sarah Palin got involved to shake things up and make things right.  That’s what America is about.  Hiding in the seats, pretending to be someone you are not, and then yelling and disrupting a speech is not how democracies thrive… its how cowards act.

Now back to the speech. Of course Sarah Barracuda’s was more exciting, but McCain’s was excellent.  I think he once again framed the debate well and showed just a piece of the stark contrast between him and the socialist on the other ticket.  I particularly liked the part about how his time as a P.O.W. converted him from a self-involved man to a man putting Country First.  Real world experience makes conservatives, and real world experience is something McCain has ten fold.  Who better to lead us in the next phase of the Greater War On Terror… who better to challenge us to make the personal sacrifices we need to make in this time of economic uncertainty, energy shortages, and a war on two fronts.  Who better to offer real change and real reform and not just hope and hype.

John McCain and Sarah Palin are clearly the best choice to move America forward.  The only question is whether people are so entrenched in their Bush Derangement Syndrome that they are too blind to notice.

Post speech (and reaction) analysis from Victor Davis Hanson.

If the post-Speech reaction of the talking heads at CNN, PBS and MSBNC, or the op-ed ravings of Gloria Steinem, Maureen Dowd, Eleanor Clift or Sally Quinn are any indication, the Secret Service better enlist the Alaskan National Guard for help ensuring the Alaskan Governor’s safety.

A beautiful, confident, articulate, independent, accomplished—and conservative—woman apparently has enraged Team Obama, the mainstream media, and the entire American intelligentsia, as if they were collectively hit by a cruise missile aimed from Middle America.

When Palin talks about her present life it sounds as authentic as Biden’s showy populism came off as false. Enraged feminists are apparently the gatekeepers for less well-educated American women, who are supposed to have 0-1.5 children not 5! Their husbands must be professors, lawyers, CEOs, editors—not snowmobile champions, union members, oil workers, and fishermen—or, worse, all in one! And unlike a Pelosi, Quinn, or Clinton, Palin, God forbid, did not rely on a powerful, wealthy husband or father to energize her career. Worse still, she took no women’s studies class, never attended the Ivy League, and shoots moose. The danger is not just that Sarah Palin could win McCain the election, but she could expose the entire flimsy structure of doctrinaire liberalism as the hypocrisy—and chauvinism—it has become.

There’s more.

I was 17 years shy of being able to vote when Ronald Reagan was elected to his first term in 1980… so when people compare the excitement over Governor Palin to the excitement over Reagan in ‘76 or ‘80, it seems a little foreign to me. I know of President Reagan, and I admire him very much.  He is my hero.  But much of that comes from reading his words, studying his record, and being able to enjoy the successes he bought for us by fighting the Cold War and the Carter Malaise.

The excitement, pride and patriotism I felt last night didn’t come from a book, a conversation, the video replay or text of the speech.  It came from the moment.  A moment that was set-up by a much too long primary season and a much fractured Republican Party.  A moment that was then gift wrapped when the Democratic Party nominated a socialist who is full or rhetoric but short of substance.  The man can speak, but unlike my hero the Great Communicator, all he has are words.

Sarah Palin has words too… and she can deliver them with wit, a little bite and not an ounce of condescension.  While the elitist Obama writes his American memoir while sitting on a beach in Bali, our Vice Presidential Nominee was raising a family… running a government… kicking the ass of corruption on both sides of the aisle… and bagging a few moose for good measure.  She is the embodiment of the American Dream and the American woman.  And she does it all without patting herself on the back or forming her own religion.

The Republican Primary was full of people trying to summon the legacy of Ronald Reagan.  They each evoked his name because they knew the party had lost his spirit.  Every one of them fell short.  All strong candidates in their own right, but none of them were enough.  None of them had everything so we each picked sides for something.  Evangelicals over here, fiscal conservatives over there, security hawks there, federalists over there… and the rest went to Ron Paul.  The curse of our primary was that all of our candidates to one extent or another were close… but none of them were close enough.  And the result was a compromise that left everyone scratching their heads.

And the compromise, as worthy as he is, left us with a void.  We wanted that excitement.  We wanted that champion.  We all thought we found our Reagan and all came up short.  John McCain is a remarkable man with a remarkable career who is best equipped to be our Commander-in-Chief.  And in these serious times, that’s exactly what we need.  But we want more.

And we got it.

Only time will tell if Sarah Palin can stand up to our standard bearer of old… but one thing is certain from last night… she certainly got us all excited again.  She changed the game, elevated the debate, and pointed out the hypocrisy in the arguments on the left.  She broke the symbolism of their candidate, by being a symbol herself, only to shatter both symbols with a real record of real reform.

John McCain found his Vice Presidential pick and we found our party again.  Thank God for Hillary and high gas prices.

UPDATE: Here is the entire speech, via the GOP and YouTube.

If you didn’t see it yourself, here’s a link to the video of Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech. America, meet the next Vice President of the United States of America.

More tomorrow.

After Sarah Barracuda Palin knocked her speech out of the park, the media had nothing to do than remind everyone that she had a speech writer.  Really?  So does your guy.  So did Bill Clinton.  So did Hillary.  So did Reagan, et all.  Newsflash: Politicians have speech writers.  Dunce.

If that’s all they got, then you know she hit the grand slam.  I was thoroughly impressed and so was the wife.  The test will be if Americans as a whole liked it, and how quickly the liberal press will try to convince them otherwise.

Sarah Palin addressed the Republican National Convention tonight.  She moved, inspired and dug in for the fight.  God Bless you Sarah.  Thank you for taking up the cause.

Fred Thompson spent his time in the primaries calling for a return to the “first principles” of our government and encouraging the idea of “citizen servants” who are regular people who rise from private life into public service and back again, always putting country first.  I guess he sees some of that in Sarah Palin (no surprise there).  During his speech to the RNC tonight, Fred had this to say about Governor Palin:

She is from a small town, with small town values, but that’s not good enough for those folks who are attacking her and her family.

Some Washington pundits and media big shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit. Well, give me a tough Alaskan Governor who has taken on the political establishment in the largest state in the Union — and won — over the beltway business-as-usual crowd any day of the week.

Let’s be clear … the selection of Governor Palin has the other side and their friends in the media in a state of panic. She is a courageous, successful, reformer, who is not afraid to take on the establishment.

Sound like anyone else we know?

She has run a municipality and she has run a state.

And I can say without fear of contradiction that she is the only nominee in the history of either party who knows how to properly field dress a moose … with the possible exception of Teddy Roosevelt.

She and John McCain are not going to care how much the alligators get irritated when they get to Washington, they’re going to drain that swamp.