Ed Morrisey, su Captain’s Quarters,

Ferrets are listed as among the “dangerous” animals one may not keep in an NYC apartment.

I guess I’ll stop there. I could tell you about the time I saw a woman walking a wolf on a leash near Lincoln Center, but that, children, is another story.

As for getting back to roots, what does that mean exactly? I think the Republicans were doing better and winning more elections when they tried to be more inclusive. Look at 2002 and 2004 and the money they were raising. In fact it was after the hardliners decided to make an issue out of illegal immigration and went out of their way to alienate hispanics and moderates that Republicans began to lose. There are ways to do things, and that was not the way.

Recently the Democratic base has been saying the same kind of thing about getting back to their values. They did not go to the DLC and they claimed that they need to be more liberal to attract voters…. not less. However, in my district here in Indiana the Democrat who won was a blue dog Democrat named Ellsworth who is pro life, pro gun rights and pro military.

The Democrats won by going to center.

So while I think it is important that Republicans remain center right, I hope they do not go so far to the right that the moderates continue to go to the Democrats.

Right now the best hope the Republicans have is the sheer stupidity of the Democratic base. If that base is able to alienate those moderate voters the moderate Democrats attracted in 2006 then the Republicans have a chance, unless of course their own base alienates even more people.

It’s more than 15 months until the election. A canadidate who decides he’s not going to lower himself to the CNN/YouTube level of discourse will lose nothing over the long run. In fact, he’d be more likely to be considered a serious candidate than someone who makes himself into a Jay Leno joke by talking to a snowman.

On top of this, there’s the fact that the questions will be loaded, as MD says. Why give yourself more opportunities to slip up on biased questions hand-picked by MSM operatives? I’d love to see a candidate who would challenge the premises when the MSM asks them….after all, that seemed to work very well for Ronald Reagan.

There is lots of talk in the blogosphere about Republicans backing out of the CNN/YouTube debate scheduled for September. Hugh Hewitt says this is a good thing. Patrick Ruffini says it is a bad thing. Sister Toldjah has noted how

Some strip bars have a segment in which they bring all of the dancers up at once, for the enjoyment of the patrons; it’s called the “cattle call.” Well, at this early stage of the nomination contests, that’s what the campaign …

The GOP is being outraised by $100 million or more because it forgot the principles that gave it the majority in the first place and decided to act like Democrats.

Absolutely!!
The other day I got a phone call from a Republican asking for money. I told the caller that his boss is to much of a Democrat for any self-respecting Rep to give him money. I told the caller that his boss is one of the reasons we lost our majority.

Make one of the debate issues be about CNN’s rampant dishonesty.

That is a really good point MD. They should raise the MSM’s liberal bias to the National Debate level. These guys should go back and list the questions the Dems had to answer and compare them to what they will have to answer after the debate. I bet you will catch CNN big. – Lorica

Key quotes:

Video populism? Puh-lease. Anderson Cooper and staff selected which videos were aired — not the people.

Republican operative Patrick Ruffini is not pleased, blogging: “This is a big mistake. The Democrats are afraid to answer questions from Big Bad Fox News Anchors, and the Republicans are afraid to answer questions from regular people. Which is worse?”

Ducking the press is worse. Sorry. These are not questions from the people. They are questions from the sock puppets.

Exactly.

You can bet your bottom dollar that the questions will only be variations of the following: “When do you plan to stop beating your wife, raping your daughters, wearing a white hood and burning crosses in the lawns of local African-Americans, and eating for breakfast the babies of undocumented immigrants doing the jobs Americans won’t do?” This is stock MSM “journalism” these days. The CNN/YouTube will be no different. Count on it. Why support suck a rigged and crooked process?

Democrats avoiding FOX….the GOP avoiding the MSM….it seems to me that Republicans win in that situation. The MSM is dying – why not help hasten its demise by denying it any shred of credibility that it does not deserve?

The GOP is being outraised by $100 million or more because it forgot the principles that gave it the majority in the first place and decided to act like Democrats. Answering a foolish question from someone in a snowman suit will not raise a dime for Republicans, no matter what Ruffini may imagine to the contrary.

There is one exception to this that I would make. If you plan to voluntarily enter the lions’ den, you should be prepared to fight the lying MSM lions. I agree with Lorica – if the questions are biased to the left, then the GOP candidates should challenge the questioners and CNN. Make one of the debate issues be about CNN’s rampant dishonesty. That would be a plus for the GOP. Anything short of that – the Republicans will only hurt themselves by allowing the MSM to frame the debate.

Social Security townhalls in which only certified flunkies who swore to a Bush loyalty oath were let into the room.

Ohhh Please!! As if Bush was the first person to think this up. Remember Hillary’s townhalls on National Healthcare??? Ya had to be a good Dem to get into those and that was what, 1993??? I had a professor who was at the townhall in Des Moines, and one of the Doctors didn’t ask the question he was given by Hillary’s people, and she walked off the stage. Big Wuss!!

As far as Republicans not going to this debate, I think any excuse they come up with is going to look silly, and it will be just that, an excuse. If they fear questions that are to left leaning, then call the debate host on that fact. As far as their “fear” that they might have to defend Iraq or gay marriage, what is their to be afraid of. Most people who want us to “Cut and Run” in Iraq or back Gay Marriage are going to vote Dem anyway, and there is no way to change that. Even if these Reps were stupid enough to pander to the people who want these things. So the innuendo used by bark bark woof woof is just asnine. Also as far as their assertion that 8 years of Bush has been bad, our economy is at all time highs, our unemployment is at all time lows, both are so good infact that the MSM has to trump up any little thing to make it look bad. /SHOCK The Dow dropped 300 points in a single day!!!! Well at 14,000 points that should have been expected ya idiots. Did we have people jumping out of windows??? I hope Rudy reconsiders, and I hope Romney doesn’t drop out. It would be interesting for the grass roots to watch these guys “let loose” abit. Hell if I was one of these guys I would show up in a Mercy Me T-shirt and jeans and tell ‘em all let’s kick back and have some fun!!! – Lorica