ProudConservative.com - The Blog

I have gotten so many emails in the past 36 hours...it's almost shocking!  They all ask the same question..."What do you think about McCain picking Palin?"  I am going to answer that here as well as express my thoughts a little deeper.

I am absolutely thrilled with his pick.  I recently wrote an editorial saying that McCain must pick a conservative V.P. because talk is cheap.  In that article I stated, "There are several candidates the conservative base will be happy with.  There are even a few choices we’d be thrilled with."  Sarah Palin was one of the choices I had in mind when I said there were a few we'd be thrilled with.  Bobby Jindal was another.

There have been few harsher conservative critics of Sen. McCain than myself.  I have not made it a secret that I was not happy he won the nomination.  I have given my reasons over and over again.  The choice of Gov. Palin has given me some comfort though.  This does not mean all of a sudden that I think McCain is a conservative.  It doesn't mean I will not continue to fight him when he is wrong.  It doesn't take away all the horrendous bills he has supported and/or wrote.  What it does mean is that I can give him the benefit of the doubt now when he says he supports certain conservative issues.  It means maybe he has learned something and maybe he has truly changed his views on some issues.  It means he has taken his conservative rhetoric and changed it into conservative action.  This was the whole premise behind my editorial about McCain picking a conservative running mate.  There is no doubt that McCain has sounded more conservative on certain issues in recent months.  Up until now, it has only been words though.  I used President Ronald Reagan's words, "Trust but verify."  With this choice, he has verified to me that at the very minimum, he is now listening to conservatives and has quit trying to poke us in the eye.  I give credit where credit is do.

Gov. Palin will no doubt be attacked by the left.  It's already happening.  It's actually happening with such vitriol that I know she makes the liberals nervous.  They have already gone after her for agreeing to run for V.P. because she has a child at home with down's syndrome.  Gov. Palin was given the so called choice of aborting her baby because the down's syndrome was detected in the womb.  She is pro-life and chose not to kill her child.  If they want to go that route...which is more family friendly?  A woman who chooses to bring a child into the world and love it and care for it despite it's illness.  Or aborting the baby as most liberals would support?

They are saying she has no experience.  This is laughable.  Gov. Palin is the only candidate running who has any executive experience.  She is the candidate who has ever been a mayor.  She is the only candidate who has been a governor.  She is the only candidate who has had to deal with budgets as an executive.  This strategy is flawed because it only highlights the inexperience of Sen. Obama, who is not the V.P. but the presidential candidate.  If they want to go that route...in Obama's words, "That's a debate I'm willing to have."

They have said, "Well she was only mayor of a village of 9,000 people."  What they fail to realize is that small villages and towns make up the majority of this nation.  They are so elitist that they make fun of coming from a small town.  They laugh off her service as mayor simply because she was mayor of a small village.  If they want to go that route...it will only highlight their elitism.

There will be endless attacks on her.  They are coming so brace yourself.

During Gov. Palin's speech when she was announced as Sen. McCain's running mate, she listed a litany of her successes and positions on issues.  There was one quote that stood out to me though.  As many of you recall, the Congress approved a pork barrel spending project called "the bridge to nowhere." It was an unnecessary expenditure that was nothing but wasteful spending of $250 million of the citizen's money.  Gov. Palin turned down the money.  This was her quote from the speech:  "I told Congress, 'Thanks but no thanks' on that bridge to nowhere.  If our state wanted a bridge, we'd build it ourselves."  Gov. Palin gets it.  She gets that the tax payer is not an ATM machine for every project the politicians want to waste money on.  She gets that states need to stop looking to the federal government for everything.  This is conservatism.

She is a lifetime member of the N.R.A.  She understands and respects the 2nd amendment.  This is conservatism.

She is pro-life.  She understands that killing innocent babies is not only wrong, but barbaric. This is conservatism.  

She understands that our nation has abundant energy supplies and that it can be harvested responsibly.  This is conservatism.

She understands that man made global warming is a fraud and that the people will try to use it to weaken this nation economically.  This is conservatism.

I could go on and on.  Gov. Sarah Palin is the real deal.  She is bright.  She is articulate.  She is beautiful....hey what's wrong with that?  She is conservative.  She is the change we have been waiting for.  She has energized the base and brought conservatives on board.

So if supporting the McCain/Palin ticket with, at the very minimum, my vote gets this woman anywhere near the White House, I can now do that.  As someone stated, maybe this will set up a Palin/Jindal ticket in 2012 or 2016.

  

Posted by Trent at 12:04 AM | Permalink

Sen. John McCain has made his choice and his running mate is Gov. Sarah Palin from Alaska.  I could not be more thrilled with his pick.  She is a strong conservative.  She is the type of running mate I was talking about when I said he must pick a strong conservative as his V.P. if he wanted the support of conservatives in this country. 

Sarah Palin has a proven track record of supporting and promoting conservative causes.  She has a record of being fiscally responsible.  She has a record of being a reformer.  She is pro-life.  She is a lifetime member of the N.R.A.  She's a hockey mom!  (Hey...I'm a hockey dad so I like that.)  Did I mention she's gorgeous?

I have not been a big supporter of Sen. McCain.  I have written several editorials and blogs about his candidacy.  All the issues I've ever had with McCain, I still have.  That being said, Sen. McCain has proven that he is listening to conservatives.   For this, he is to be applauded.  For his pick of Gov. Palin, he is to be commended.

I have gotten several emails asking me what I thought of the pick.  Many of you know, I have been hoping that he would pick one of three people.  My top three choices for him, in no particular order were Sarah Palin, Mark Sanford, Bobby Jindal.  I am absolutely thrilled with this pick.

I wanted to keep this blog short.  I will be writing another editorial/blog on this issue.  It will sort of wrap up my thoughts based on this pick and based on previous editorials/blogs I have written regarding McCain.  Look for it soon.

 

Posted by Trent at 07:36 PM | Permalink

Sen. John McCain is poised to announce his choice for VP today. Drudge is reporting that it is not Pawlenty or Romney. There was also speculation that Palin was in the running. Drudge is also now reporting that it's not Palin either. Obviously, this is all speculation and we probably won't know until McCain announces his pick. Unfortunately, I am going to be out all day, so by time he announces, I will not be here. Check back tonight and I will blog about his choice.

Posted by Trent at 08:49 AM | Permalink

Sen. Barack Obama officially accepted the nomination for the presidency for the Democratic Party last night in a speech that more resembled rock concert than a political event....complete with screaming crying fans.  I almost thought I had been brought back in time to an Elvis concert or something.

Ya know.....(Sorry I had to say that.  How many times did Obama say that last night?).....I was expecting his speech to be full of reasons why America sucks.  I couldn't believe how right I was though.  He went on and on and on about why America sucks and the scary thing was you had 85,000 people cheering him on.  Is this how the Democrats actually see this great nation we live in?  This whole week, I've had to look around.  After listening to speaker after speaker on the Democrat stage tell me how bad we have it, I thought maybe we were living in Ethiopia.  I didn't realize that everyone in this nation was out of work.  I didn't realize that we were all about to lose our homes.  I didn't realize that we all had built up piles of credit card debt and there was no hope for the future.....UNLESS we elect Barack Obama.

Everyone talks about what a great speaker he is.  And I'll give him some credit, he usually can read a speech pretty well.  But I thought his speech fell flat last night.  He wasn't inspiring.  He wasn't full of hope.  He was full of anger.  I expected the liberal nonsense but I figured he would be able to deliver it in a way that at least was grandiose.  You want to know the truth?  I fell asleep before the end of the speech.  I woke up a few hours later and caught the replay.  Electrifying?  Hardly.

Obama, the agent of change, picked a running mate who has been in Washington D.C. longer than John McCain.  The agent of change gave a speech that I've heard many times over.  It was a speech that just about every Democrat Presidential candidate has given for the past 30 years.  It was full of new spending on programs that this country doesn't need and the Constitution doesn't authorize.  It was full of promises of tax cuts, which never materialize once the Democrat is in office.  It was full of the message....."Don't worry if you screw up your life.  The government is here to pick you back up."  What happened to picking yourself back up. 

I wanted to throw something at my T.V. when Obama was going on and on..."blah blah blah, tough luck.  You're on your own!"  Of course we are on our own!  That's the way it should be!  And the times when we do need assistance, we don't need to look to the government.  We look to family and friends and charitable organizations.  We help those in need through churches, through charitable organizations...all without government interference and involvement.  Yes, we are on our own as we should be.   That's the American spirit!  Do for ourselves and help those in need without the government getting involved.  Why is it that the Democrats don't seem to get that?

If you are for more government involvement in our lives, if you believe America is a downright mean country, if you believe that Obama is our only hope....two words for you..."GET HELP."

 

Posted by Trent at 08:18 AM | Permalink

Democrats have been spewing nonsense about a recession for the past year. The facts didn't get in there way that a recession never started. They kept hammering and hammering until people started talking about the recession. There was no recession. There is no recession. I'm not a big fan of John McCain, but he is right and he should not run from his assertion that "The economy is fundamentally strong." It is.

GDP increases at a 3.3% annual rate in second quarter

Posted by Trent at 10:19 AM | Permalink

On the third night of the Democratic National Convention, there were two main speakers....Bill Clinton and Joe Biden.  Yes there were other speakers but after two days of watching this convention, I just couldn't put myself through the lies and whining about how bad America is.  You would think we were living in Ethiopia or something by listening to the Democrats.  I chose instead to help my kids get their stuff ready for their first day of school.

I did catch Bill Clinton's speech and Joe Biden's speech.  What can I say?  More of the same.  America has no friends because we are terrible.  Everyone except for evil CEOs and oil tycoons are starving and losing their homes.  The world is about to end because of carbon emissions.  On and on and on.  It's all Bush's fault.  BUT Barack Obama will save the country and the world.  Obama will restore our place in world and the light will come shining down and the birds will sing. 

Bill Clinton did try to do what Hillary did not which was to try to say a few nice things about Obama.  But he mainly wanted to talk about himself and his presidency.  He made mention of how Republicans claimed he was too young and inexperienced and how wrong they were.  He failed to mention all of his foreign policy blunders in the first 2 years.  He failed to mention that until the Republicans took over Congress in 1994, his administration was running deficits as far as the eye could see.

Joe Biden gave the Democrats the red meat they were craving.  He said John McCain was his friend and then proceeded to knock and insult him for nearly 1/2 the speech.  He also added in what a miserable place America was to live and how everyone was living in the gutter.  Again, Obama is the solution.  Reality calling Sen. Biden.....come in Sen. Biden.

What was scary to me was they were basically reading right out of the communist manifesto on how they will "solve" all of problems in this country and you had thousands upon thousands of Democrats cheering.  I don't know if these people are just ignorant of what our government has the authority to do or they simply don't care.  I don't know if they realize they are applauding socialism almost on the edge of communism. 

The other main event of the night was that Obama was officially nominated to be the Democrat presidential candidate.  The roll call vote was haulted in a show....and I do mean show.....of "unity" by none other than Hillary Clinton.  She moved that the convention suspend the rules, end the roll call vote and nominate Barack Obama by acclamation. 

Thankfully, there is only one more night of this nonsense.

 

Posted by Trent at 09:31 AM | Permalink

This is the ad that the Obama campaign is trying to stop from airing. He has complained to and is trying to scare the stations who have aired this commercial. He has even gone so far as to try to intimidate the stations by contacting the station's other advertisers and trying to get them to pull their advertisements.

Truth hurts I guess.....

Posted by Trent at 08:00 PM | Permalink

People keep thinking I am nuts because I keep saying, "Obama is not the nominee yet. And until I see his name on the ballot in November, I will not be convinced the Clintons are not trying to undermine his canidacy in order to replace him with Hillary." I know....I know. I'm a conspiracy nut right? I didn't say it was going to happen, but I am not putting it past them.

Take President Bill Clinton's remark today. He said, "Suppose for example you're a voter. And you've got candidate X and candidate Y. Candidate X agrees with you on everything, but you don't think that person can deliver on anything. Candidate Y disagrees with you on half the issues, but you believe that on the other half, the candidate will be able to deliver. For whom would you vote?"

Does this sound like an Obama supporter to you? Sounds like someone trying to take Obama down a few notches if you ask me.

Posted by Trent at 07:44 PM | Permalink

Sen. Hillary Clinton will speak tonight at the Democrat National Convention.  I am so curious to hear her speech.  I have heard rumors.  The rumors I have heard wouldn't completely surprise me if they turn out to be true, but I think they are unlikely to occur.  Therefore, I am not going to put them out in the public.  If they come to light, I'll comment then, but if not, I will keep them to myself.

I am also looking forward to hearing Hillary's tone and believability.  I am assuming she is going to sing the "praises" of Sen. Barack Obama, but will she do it in a believable way?

There is no doubt if it were up to Hillary, Barack Obama would lose this election.  She wants to be able to run again in 2012 and she wants to be able to rub all the Democrat voters nose it and say, "See...I told you so.  You dummies should have nominated me!"  But she has to be able to "sell" her support of Obama for fear of completely ticking off half of her party.  How successful will she be?  We'll find out a little later. 

All this is still assuming Obama is the nominee at the end of the week...... 

UPDATE AFTER HER SPEECH:

Hillary has spoken and she has said, "I am a proud supporter of Barack Obama."  She basically gave the kind of speech I was expecting.  She talked a lot about herself and every once in a while threw a bone to Barack Obama.  There were a few things that I did notice though.  The first thing was the continued sour puss face on Michelle Obama every time the camera was on her.  She had such a fake smile....when she managed to have any smile at all.  I could see what was going on in her head and she did not look happy.  I think Michelle was jealous that Hillary got 100 times the response and applause that she got.  I could tell that Michelle did not like it when Hillary was talking about herself.  I almost half expected Michelle to stand up and tell Hillary that she was here to talk about Barack and to stop talking about herself.  Whatever softening of her appearance, if any, Michelle did yesterday in her speech was completely wiped out with the dirty looks she was giving during Hillary's speech.

The other thing I noticed was that Hillary spoke mostly about herself.  She would every once in a while say Barack's name and mention that she was going to support him, but she never gave him a ringing endorsement.  She barely talked about him as a person or as a leader.  She never said that she knows he has the ability to lead.

I do have to admit that I thought as far as her tone and facial expressions, she didn't seem as angry as I thought she would appear.  Maybe that was by design....so that people could compare her and Michelle.  I don't know.   She did the minimum the Obama campaign could expect.  No more and no less. 

I think what will be interesting....and unfortunately there will only be a select few who know the actual truth.....is just how much she and Bill will work against Obama behind the scenes in the upcoming months. 

As for the substance of her speech, she made a few good points about issues this country is facing but completely went to the socialist playbook for the solutions to these issues.  Just an example....when talking about high fuel costs, which we have, she blamed the evil oil corporations.

And the one other thing that I wanted to mention....Did anyone else think that Hillary was giving a wink and a nod to her supporters to keep fighting for her when she kept chanting, "Keep going.  Keep going.  Don't ever stop."

Honestly, I don't need to go through her entire speech.  I'm sure, by now, someone has already put it up on YouTube.  If you have 1/2 an hour or so to waste, watch it and see for yourself. 

 

Posted by Trent at 07:21 PM | Permalink

Posted by Trent at 11:58 AM | Permalink

The Democrat National Convention kicked off today. I have been watching and listening as much as I can and so far there's not a whole lot to report. Sen. Ted Kennedy spoke. Health-wise he looked better than I expected, but policy-wise he was the same old liberal. Nancy Pelosi spoke. I almost fell asleep as did many of the people at the convention. I almost.....ALMOST....felt bad for her as it appeared as if no one was listening to a word she was saying. I guess with good reason....she really didn't have much substance to her speech. Howard Dean reminded me why I put him on my YouTube video "The Top Ten Reasons Liberals Are Friggin Idiots." This guy is a tool.

I am listening to Michelle Obama right now. She has actually managed not to say how mean and nasty she believes this country to be. Now, of course, I didn't expect her to put down the United States in her speech tonight. But I figured she might not be able to stop herself....just as she was unable to keep her dislike for this nation under wraps in previous speeches. She must have got the memo....."Most Americans are proud of their country and believe this nation to be the greatest nation on Earth.....so STOP saying you are proud of your country for the first time. STOP saying that America is a down right mean country in 2008." She hasn't been very convincing. She hasn't been very inspirational. She still seems angry underneath her "calm" stage presence. Her whole purpose tonight was to come off to the American people as softer and warmer than what we have seen in the past several months. Did it work? I guess if you have never seen or heard any or stump speeches, it probably did. But if you have heard her speak before tonight...well you may be a bit more skeptical. At least she gave a better speech than Pelosi.....not a very hard thing to do.

Posted by Trent at 09:41 PM | Permalink

I began listening to Mike Church's "The Road To Independence" when it aired on Sirius Patriot Channel on July 4th. I only caught a small part of it, but I knew I had to have it. I purchased the 3 CD set and popped it into the CD player as I was working. It was so good and there was so much information, I couldn't possibly listen to it as I was working. The next day, I brought the CDs with me in my car and by the end of the day, I had listened to the entire set. I was blown away. If you want an in-depth look at how the Declaration of Independence came about, you must order this set. From the jacket: "The Road To Independence corrects myths, dispels the P.C. revisions, and through the Founders' own written words tells their immortal story of sacrifice, revolution, and love for a country that didn't yet have a name."

Posted by Trent at 12:50 PM | Permalink

All the reports coming out tonight are that Sen. Barack Obama has chosen Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate.  Oh man....this is going to be fun.

Well....let me just welcome Sen. Biden to the race with a video I'm sure he and the rest of the country will see over and over and over for the next few months. Obama / Biden '08 Hahahhhaaahhahaahahahha

 

Posted by Trent at 01:08 AM | Permalink

New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg apparently is considering trying to do away with the term limits that the citizens of New York City voted in to effect.  Is he doing it by voter referendum?  Of course not.  He is making a backroom deal with other politicians on the city council.  What is he offering?  With a wink and a nod, it is suggested that he is doing away with or at least extending the term limits of other politicians in the city. 

The citizens of New York City voted for term limits.  If Mayor Bloomberg and the rest of the politicos want to overturn the term limits, let them go to their constituents instead of trying to do it legislatively.  This is not Venezuela where the leaders can arbitrarily decide how long they will stay in office.  If he somehow pulls off changing the term limits law, I hope the city of New York votes him out on his ass.  He might be able to change the term limit rules, but he can't change the vote.  

 

MORE ON THE STORY

Posted by Trent at 09:04 AM | Permalink

Host of Sirius Patriot Channel's Wilkow Majority, Andrew Wilkow turns 36 today.  I just wanted to send out a public "Happy Birthday" to Andrew. 

I will also take this opportunity to once again recommend everyone to subscribe to Sirius Satellite Radio.  And to those of you who have XM radio, call their customer service and ask them to start carrying the Wilkow Majority now that the two companies have merged.  Andrew's show is worth the subscription price itself.

 

Posted by Trent at 11:15 AM | Permalink

It is often said that the person picked as a presidential candidate’s running mate is of little significance as far as whether or not a particular candidate will win an election or not.  I can only speak for myself here but, the Vice President pick of any of the Presidential candidates I have ever voted for has never influenced my vote.  That will absolutely change this year.  

Sen. John McCain has won the Republican nomination to run for President of the United States of America.  He wasn’t my pick.  As a matter of fact, he was the one candidate running that I really, REALLY did not want to win the nomination.  I would have been o.k. voting for any of the other candidates that ran for the nomination had they won.  Sure some candidates were more conservative than others and I would have preferred them over the others (which is why I endorsed Duncan Hunter), but overall I would have been able to vote for any of the other candidates.  There were certainly issues I did not agree with some of the candidates on but, I would not have thought twice about voting for any of them.  I’m sorry to say that I can’t say the same about Sen. McCain.  

Sen. McCain has enjoyed poking conservatives in the eye at every opportunity he had.  However, as soon as he needed conservatives during the primaries, all of a sudden he was touting what a conservative he was.  Very few conservatives I know fell for this.  We remember McCain / Feingold.  We remember McCain / Kennedy.  We remember McCain / Edwards.  We remember McCain / Lieberman.  We remember the Gang of 14.  We remember him voting against the Bush tax cuts.  We remember him trying to ram amnesty to illegal aliens down the country’s throat.  In short, we know he is not a conservative.  I would argue, he’s barely a Republican….but hey that’s me.  This is not a candidate I could support freely for President.

2008 is different.  The Democrats are running a Marxist as their candidate.  Sen. Barack Obama is as left wing as they come.  His policies come straight from Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto.  His associations and policies should scare the Dickens out of everyone.  It scares the heck out of me.  

In my opinion, Sen. McCain is taking advantage of the situation.  He isn’t even trying to win over the conservatives anymore.  He already has the nomination.  He knows we fear what an Obama administration might do to this country.  He believes he can do whatever he wants and still garner our support.  Sen. McCain….I am here to say that that is not the case with me.  And if the emails I get and the conversations I have mean anything, it’s not the case for a lot of conservatives.  There certainly are those Republicans that are willing to support him no matter what.  There are even conservatives that are willing to support him no matter what.  However, if he thinks we all think this way, he’s in for a rude awakening come November.

There are so many of us conservatives that have been trying…..really trying to find a reason to vote for McCain.  And the only answer many of us come up with is…..”Well, at least he’s not as liberal as Obama.”  That’s not a reason to vote for anyone.  It’s a reason NOT to vote for someone else, in this case Obama.  

Every time I have almost gotten myself to say I will begrudgingly vote “for” McCain, he opens his mouth and says something really stupid.  Or he floats trial balloons to see how we conservatives will react to some of his liberal nonsense.  We usually react with disgust, but then many conservatives go back to….”Well, at least he’s not as liberal as Obama.”  We can only do this so many times.

Sen. McCain has said he now favors making the Bush tax cuts permanent.  He now says he supports drilling offshore.  He says he will appoint conservative judges.  Talk is cheap though.  I wonder if he thinks conservatives will just believe him because he says something.  I’d like to, but as Ronald Reagan said, “Trust, but verify.”  

How can he verify with me?  He can appoint a real conservative vice presidential running mate.  There are several candidates the conservative base will be happy with.  There are even a few choices we’d be thrilled with.  But I will say this.   If he chooses a guy like Lieberman, who Dick Morris is touting as his best pick, I will NOT vote for him.  If he chooses a guy like Lindsey Graham, I will NOT vote for him.  If he chooses a guy like Tom Ridge, I will NOT vote for him.  
 

I don't claim to speak for all conservatives.  I know some will disagree with my assessment.  But, I’ll tell you why his choice for his vice presidential running mate is the most important decision he can make if he wants my support.  It is the first chance we get to see what he will actually do as President.  He has done a lot of talking about conservatism.  Great.  He needs to back it up.  He needs to choose a true conservative running mate.  If he doesn’t, all of his other talk is just that…..TALK.

 

- Trent

Posted by Trent at 12:15 AM | Permalink

I've been getting some emails recently asking why I haven't been posting any editorials or blogs. The truth is I was a bit burnt out on politics. I was still watching everything play out. I was reading about all the news and issues. I think what had me burnt out was the fact that I am not excited about this year's election. For President, on one side we have a Democrat running as a Republican and on the other side we have a marxist running as a Democrat. I'm sorry, but I can't get excited about the election.

I went on vacation for 10 days. I barely listened to the radio. I barely watched the news. I didn't read any newspapers or any websites. In short, for 10 days I was clueless as to what was going on in politics. At the same time, I was reminded of what this country was meant to be every day. I went on vacation to Williamsburg, VA. There was the constant reminder from our Founding Fathers as to what this country was meant to be. In many ways, this depressed me even more as to the current course of politics in our country. At the same time though, I have been inspired. I have been inspired to talk more about the Constitution. I have been inspired to talk more about limited self government. These are the foundations of conservatism and they used to be the foundations of the Republican Party.

As I have stated countless times....the name of this site is ProudConservative.com. It is not ProudRepublican.com. There are times when being a conservative and being a Republican overlap. Unfortunately, more and more there are also times where the two are separate groups. So what I am going to do is just keep posting about my conservative beliefs. I will post about the issues in the way that I see them. Being a conservative is much more important to me than being a Republican.

Let me just say.....thanks to all the people that sent me emails telling me they missed my blogs and editorials. Many of you understood what I was going through as it seems as if many of you are feeling the same way. I will be doing my best to post more.

Posted by Trent at 12:12 PM | Permalink

Hello everyone, I am back from vacation. Sorry it's been a while since I've posted anything here. I needed to take a break and recharge the batteries. I have a ton of catching up to do....emails....messages.....website stuff. I am trying to get back in the swing of things so please be patient. I should be all caught up in a day or two. Thanks for your continued support! - Trent

Posted by Trent at 09:44 AM | Permalink