Whitman is right. Financial conservatism is the still-burning coal in the Republican ideology. And while the overall picture of America's economy changes with the times, the principle of not overspending and maintaining a generally free market will not go out of style. And nobody likes taxes.

I'm not really a financial conservative myself, but I do find myself agreeing with such views more often than I agree with republicans on almost anything else. Thriftiness is a 50-state strategy.

The breadth of Obama's win (geographically as well as numerically) would not be possible if Social and cultural conservative issues were still resonating with people like they did in the Bush years. Palin's cartoonish interpretation of conservative values made her the least popular of all 4 people on the ticket, and proved to be the kind of divisive politics that the country is done with.

There are going to be tons of economic discussions to get in on as we hit this recession, so the time is ripe for conservatives to regain their sanity and start talking about actual policy, instead of trying to dictate how people should live their lives.

This coincides with libertarianism. Remember that? It means the government stays out of people's private lives, and doesn't legislate away their freedoms. Let people marry who they want. Keep speech free. Stop spying on our phone calls. Don't mess with Habeas Corpus.

In other words, find a non-crackpot version of Ron Paul, and you guys can have a chance for my vote.

All of that but especially this part:

jwschmidt:

The breadth of Obama's win (geographically as well as numerically) would not be possible if Social and cultural conservative issues were still resonating with people like they did in the Bush years. Palin's cartoonish interpretation of conservative values made her the least popular of all 4 people on the ticket, and proved to be the kind of divisive politics that the country is done with. There are going to be tons of economic discussions to get in on as we hit this recession, so the time is ripe for conservatives to regain their sanity and start talking about actual policy, instead of trying to dictate how people should live their lives. This coincides with libertarianism. Remember that? It means the government stays out of people's private lives, and doesn't legislate away their freedoms. Let people marry who they want. Keep speech free. Stop spying on our phone calls. Don't mess with Habeas Corpus.

Learn from mistakes. Make this debacle of a campaign a learning experience. It's time for the adults to take back their Republican Party, the party of Dwight Eisenhower and Nelson Rockefeller. There are real conservatives with brilliant minds in the GOP who can lead the party back to prominence, if only the GOP leadership can blot out the screeching of the neocons and the religious right. Give sanity a try!