QUOTE OF THE DAY - AT 8:27 A.M. ET:  From Bill Kristol, at the Weekly Standard, reflecting the feelings of many of us:

Just what is Barack Obama as president making of our American destiny? The answer, increasingly obvious, is .  .  . a hash. It's worse than most of us expected. His dithering on Afghanistan is deplorable, his appeasing of Iran disgraceful, his trying to heap new burdens on a struggling economy destructive.

Add to this his sending Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for a circus-like court trial. The next three years are going to be long and difficult ones for our economy, our military, and our country.
What is the loyal opposition to do?

Oppose Obama's destructive proposals (health care, cap and trade) and try to defeat them. Expose the foolishness of Obama's ineffective policies (the stimulus, cash for clunkers) and show the American people their failure. And try to influence Obama's policy choices by persuasion (Afghanistan), embarrassment (political correctness in the fight against jihadists), or legislation (Guantánamo), so as to minimize the damage done to the country on his watch.

In all of this, Republicans and conservatives can succeed, especially if they keep two rules in mind: Don't celebrate bad news. Don't root for the bad guys.

And...

Republicans need to point out that Obama's economic policies aren't working. But they need to resist appearing to relish bad news for the country on Obama's watch. When rising unemployment numbers come out, there is occasionally an unseemly sense of celebration in the emails that come from various GOP offices...

...In areas where policies are still being debated--in foreign policy in particular--conservatives need to keep urging Obama to do the right thing...

...We want the bad guys to lose. We're happy to work with President Obama to defeat them--and we only wish he shared our clarity and urgency about accomplishing that task.

COMMENT:  All good advice.  But there must be one ingredient added:  Conservatives must learn, the way Ronald Reagan learned, to speak over the heads of the American media, directly to the American people.  Conservatives still do not understand the extent to which modern journalism has been compromised by its dalliance with the political left.  They still do not understand that this dalliance will continue, that careerism within journalism demands it, just as careerism within universities demands it.

You can have the best message in the world, but if you don't know how to get it to the American people, you will lose.  When Reagan told us it was "morning in America," he didn't tell it to a White House reporter, for transmittal.  He told it directly to us, and all the gatekeepers of the media could do nothing about it.

November 17, 2009