The latest print (dead-tree) version of National Review features John Hood?s take on the Obama win. After detailing the president-elect?s successes and John McCain?s failures, Hood offers this assessment:
I don?t deny that Republicans should reengineer their campaign machinery from top to bottom, or that the conservative movement should enter a period of introspection and renewal. With regard to the latter, I believe that only a coherent, easy-to-explain combination of tax relief and government reforms that draw on the movement?s libertarian and traditionalist strands ? call it a bold fusion of liberty and virtue ? has a chance of addressing the concerns of America?s broad middle class and assembling an electoral majority. But some perspective is called for here. Any political scientist using standard predictive models would have forecast a Democratic victory months ago, long before the general election was under way. Despite it all, McCain attracted 46 percent of the popular vote. And with every electoral cylinder firing for the Dems, their 2008 gains got them back to the status quo ante of 1993, but no further.
Hood mentioned similar ideas during the John Locke Foundation?s post-election panel discussion. Click the play button below to hear his comments.
