We have to show the country that we are still a viable organization and that we are willing to contribute to the greater good. I think starting in the school system is right on target. I also believe that in addition to your ideas, that teachers should also be rated competitively. If they don't score high enough, ie., do a good enough job teaching our kids, then they should find another line of work. Lets put the best and brightest right where it all starts. In our schools.

Immigration should be a recruiting process, but it should also allow for a reasonable number of less privileged as well. People who perhaps have the aptitude to learn greater things than they've had the opportunity to where they are. The immigration, naturalization and citizenship process needs some work overs as well.

Conservatives are not gone or "defeated" by this election. We need to stand up and be heard in a positive way that will bring people back to our basic values and love of this country. We need to become a part of the new process, while maintaining the values we've always held dear.

James Smith

We need to start educating people about Conservative values - we have not been doing that well enough.The liberals are WAY more motivated with outreach.

I am glad Bush is going - he sapped a lot of energy out of the Conservative movement by doing two things:

1) He was so busy successfully conducting the war on terror that he neglected to put sufficient energy into selling it properly to the public- and thus did not get due credit for his successes.

McCain was also great on foreign policy - but it wasn't enough.

2) Bush reneged on some key issues of Conservative principle: illegal immigration and ESPECIALLY the Wall Street bailout come to mind. McCain unfortunately followed his lousy lead in this arena.

3) We need to stop being so damned PC and get a leader like Reagan, who wasn't afraid to talk EXTREMELY tough and had a clear, consistent message - none of the wishy-washy stuff you might hear from Bush or McCain.

"In spite of the wildly speculative and false stories of arms for hostages and alleged ransom payments, we did not -- repeat did not -- trade weapons or anything else for hostages nor will we." - Reagan

Nothing wishy-washy here. Just straigh-out lies.

Mercedes, the ongoing discussion shows that it is not a question of communicating a set of conservative values, but finding one that the GOP can agree on. The problem is that the same party has to please fundamentalist christians that want to legislate according to a very specific interpretation of the bible, modern christians that are generally socially progressive (interested in alleviating inequality, poverty, ...) but put abortion first, libertarians that want to reduce the size of government and neocons that want the US to dominate the world. There's not much that binds these together.