Click the map to enlarge the image. ***

This is a map of trends...counties which voted more democratic than in 2004. I'm tired of the whole conservative/liberal...right/left diatribes. Bill Clinton closed the deficit and turned it into a surplus...created jobs...got people off of welfare...opened free trade (which needs to be revisited)...and wingnuts call him a liberal. Reagan increased the tax burden on the working class, regressively, by doubling the payroll tax...and then ripped off the system by stealing from the trust fund which was created. Reagan left the nation with 5 times the debt he inherited. Bush I entered into a massive war, using depleted uranium shells and creating an environmental catastrophe, killing thousands upon thousands...in support of a monarchy in Kuwait (which was a breakaway province of Iraq and were 'drinking Iraq's milkshake' by horizontal drilling)...GW Bush, well you all know his legacy...shredding the constitution, increasing the scope and breadth of executive powers and privilege, driving this nation deeply in debt...while handing money over to his cronies, who have shipped jobs overseas...in Halliburton's case even leaving the country and headquartering in Dubai. All three of these men have eased restrictions on water quality, air quality...opened wilderness areas to logging and mining friends...and they are called 'conservatives'?

from the wall street journal

"The Republicans' problems go beyond leadership races, as Election Day data suggest the party is losing grass-roots support. Republican voter turnout declined 1.3% from 2004, while Democratic turnout grew 2.6%, according to election expert Curtis Gans. The portion of voters calling themselves Republicans dropped to 32% Tuesday from 37% in 2004, according to exit-poll data, while self-identified Democrats grew to 40% from 37%. Mike Franc of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, said that exit polls also showed 20% of self-identified conservatives voted for President-elect Barack Obama. "Why has it been so hard to communicate the essence of what conservatives stand for?" he said party leaders are asking. Conservative conclaves have been seeking the answer. Thursday, about 20 political strategists and social and fiscal conservative leaders met at the rural Virginia home of conservative activist Brent Bozell to discuss a way forward. The group included Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. Mr. Bozell told reporters following the meeting that it was the first in a series. "The purpose of these meetings is quite simple: The conservative movement is going to retake America," he said. He added that the focus of their efforts in coming months will be to rebuild the party at the grass-roots level, develop new technologies to reach voters and fund raising."

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Brent Bozell? Grover Norquist? Cultural warrior Tony Perkins? They are part of the problem, not the solution. If the Republicans wish to remake their image, they would be far better off looking at Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln for inspiration... True conservationist, progressive/forward looking, inclusive thoughts and ideals.