From the "Hell Has Frozen Over Dept."...

"Barring some calamitous mistake by the Democrats (and true, that can never be ruled out from the "war is lost" party), the GOP enters the 2008 election cycle at a serious disadvantage. If we want to win, we have to offer the American voter something fresh and compelling. I think most of us understand that. And yet at the same time we are demanding that our candidates repeat formulas and phrases from two and three decades ago.

Yes, the GOP needs candidates to display higher-quality leadership than they have exhibited till now.

But if we want higher-quality leadership, maybe we also need higher-quality followership."

I don't think I'd ever agree with David Frum, but I agree with him here. Listen, I like Reagan too, but the GOP needs to basically let some fresh air in and start coming up with ideas to solve the problems we face today. I mean it's sad that we someone like Mitt Romney (whose father was the governor of my home state of Michigan)try to contort himself into some far-right family-values clone to satisfy the crazies in our party when this guy was able to create a universal health care program that uses a public/private mix to make sure everyone in Massachusetts is insured.

Frankly, we don't need another Reagan. He was good for his time, but we need someone new-someone that can inspire and isn't interested in trying assuage a small part of the general electorate. Maybe someone like the new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy:

"I want to launch a call to all those in the world who believe in the values of tolerance, of liberty, of democracy and of humanism, to all those who are persecuted by the tyrannies and by the dictators, to all the children and to all the martyrized women in the world to say to them that the pride, the duty of France will at their sides, that they can count on her. France will be at the sides of the Libyan nurses locked up for eight years; France will not abandon Ingrid Betancourt; France will not abandon the women who are condemned to the burqa; France will not abandon the women who do not have liberty. France will be by the side of the oppressed of the world. This is the message of France; this is the identity of France; this is the history of France."

Now THAT'S what we need to hear from the GOP candidates. But we aren't because they are more concerned about telling the base that they don't believe in evolution.

Sigh.