Advice From Sir Winston

"This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." -- Winston Churchill

Conservatism was NOT Defeated Tuesday

There are a number of commentators suggesting that yesterday's electoral sweep by Barrack Hussein Obama was somehow a repudiation of conservatism. Many of the same people also suggest that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the embodiment of modern conservatism, was to blame for our loss. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It was bad enough that Obama waged a racist campaign from the very beginning touting the possiblity of the "first black President." Bad enough that McCain shot himself in the foot by suspending his campaign when the financial crisis struck and walked into a trap set for him by Congressional Democrats. All that was bad enough but not fatal.

Obama Bought This Election

When Obama walked away from his oft-stated pledge to accept the spending restrictions of public financing of his campaign he made a conscious decision to buy this election. What followed was the most massive fundraising drive in history. It enabled Obama to massively outspend McCain in so many of the key battleground states like Florida, Virginia and Ohio that would otherwise have gone to McCain if the playing field were level.

Obama Leveraged Record Fundraising, Spending to Defeat Rivals
By Jonathan D. Salant
Blomberg
November 5, 2008

"Barack went into the knife fight with a machete and McCain went in with a pen knife." Republican consultant Craig Shirley said.

Barack Obama obliterated every political fundraising and spending record in U.S. history.

The Illinois senator harvested more campaign cash than anyone before him, using both the Internet and traditional high-roller dinners to bring in more than $650 million from some 3 million donors for his presidential campaign. The 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, John Kerry, raised less than half that amount, as did George W. Bush and Al Gore combined in 2000.

Obama's fundraising revolutionized the way presidential campaigns are financed and may kill the Watergate-era system of providing public money for the general election.
...
With his extra money, Obama almost tripled McCain's advertising expenditures as Election Day drew near. He spent $21.5 million to McCain's $7.5 million from Oct. 21-28, according to a University of Wisconsin study. During the last weekend of the campaign, Obama ran 5,947 ads in seven competitive states compared with 3,358 for McCain, 77 percent more, according to the Nielsen Co. On Nov. 3, Obama ran 3,410 ads in those states; McCain ran 1,900.

Even before the final ad blitz, Obama had spent $190.2 million on media, compared with $76.7 million by McCain. The money allowed him to both fend off McCain's attacks and go on the offensive. In addition, he was able to expand his campaign to states traditionally inhospitable to Democratic presidential candidates, such as Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana.

Through Oct. 15, Obama also spent $46 million on staff salaries, more than double McCain's $20.1 million, helping to open field offices and build a get-out-the-vote operation.

We should now revise the old saying "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." It would be more relevant to say "power corrupts and money and power corrupt even faster."

The seeds of corruption have already been sown. The question is: how long will it take before the overgrown bramble is obvious to all?