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Volume XI Number 28 - November 21, 2012     RSS Feed   

A Periodic Newsletter for Committed Texas Conservatives

In This Issue

Honest Differences, Victory 2012, Looking Back And Learning From Mistakes

Education Myths: California Confirms More Money ≠ Better Results

Let Israel Take Care Of Israel

Darrell K. Royal RIP

Why Were We Surprised on November 6th? By Bruce Bialosky, Contributing Editor

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Gary Polland
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Happy Thanksgiving

Honest Differences, Victory 2012,
Looking Back And Learning From Mistakes

The value of looking backward for a political party is to learn from political mistakes. In 2012, the GOP in Harris County had an election that was disappointing as we lost many of our countywide candidates.

There is no one reason for our failure to repeat 2010's victory. There are many: our database of GOP voters is dated and inadequate, late breaking negative media coverage didn't help, a dispute over a Victory 2012 mailing piece that embroiled Victory Chair Ed Emmett that was aired on Fox 26, no national coattails in Harris County for the GOP, no independent voters buyer's remorse on Obama, and getting thumped by Hispanic, Asian and Afro-American voters.

As far as TCR is concerned the circular firing squad that has emerged about our less than satisfactory election needs to end. The various factions need to get together so we can, after learning from the mistakes, go forward and plan a successful 2014 campaign.

Education Myths:
California Confirms More Money ≠ Better Results

Maybe we will learn soon the lessons of failures in public education.

California, like so often, is our vision for the future. So let's look at the results of more money spent hiring teachers and reducing class size per the Weekly Standard, "In 1996, for example, the CTA spent $1 million on ads to push through a 'class size reduction program' providing state subsidies to school districts that capped classrooms at 20 students. From 1996 through 2009 California spent $20 billion on the subsidies without making a dent in students' chronically abysmal performance. (In 2011 the National Assessment of Educational Progress ranked California 46th out of 52 states and jurisdictions in students' reading and math.) Yet the program did result in the hiring of more than 18,000 new teachers statewide whose dues fattened union bank accounts." Is this where the big spenders want Texas to go?

Let Israel Take Care Of Israel

It's quite clear the administration and media need to avoid micromanaging Israel's efforts to stop assaults on its citizens by Hamas in Gaza. With over 1,000 rockets raining down on southern Israel no one is completely safe. If the US was experiencing such an assault from Mexico then Mexico would be, oh, you know.

So instead of hearing about civilian casualties, call them what they are, human shield deaths. This happens when rockets are stored or fueled near schools, hospitals and residences.

The truth is there should be no privileged sanctuaries.

As for Egypt - get with the program or the US needs to stop all assistance, or do you believe that rockets that are over 60 feet just pass through Egypt unnoticed?

Israeli soldiers protecting Arab kids from rockets flying in from Gaza into Israel
Israeli soldiers protecting Arab kids from rockets flying in from Gaza into Israel.

Darrell K. Royal RIP

Texas lost a legend recently when great former University of Texas football coach and wonderful human being who your editor had the privilege to know and serve with him on the UT Mens Athletics Council. He was truly the epitome of class and character.

Why Were We Surprised on November 6th?
By Bruce Bialosky, Contributing Editor

Ok, I was wrong. I thought the Republicans would win the Presidency. I was not the only one. Smart people like Michael Barone and Karl Rove thought so also, in addition to people like Dick Morris. A knowledgeable friend called me the Saturday before the election and told me John McLaughlin, the pollster, just told him Romney wins it going away. So what happened?

First there is the big picture. I think there were three issues that hurt the Romney campaign along the way. The first is his turn to the right to win the primaries. My now politically-astute son asserted we need to take the party back from the Todd Akins and Richard Mourdocks. While few would be supportive of these yahoos, I told him many in the Republican Party would argue we did not win because we did not put up a clear conservative. I think that is wrong. If we are going to put up a moderate then he has to run as a moderate, and if we are putting up a conservative he has to run as such. The problem is that Republican primaries bring out the conservatives and force moderates to appease them. Mitt muddled his message and Obama's team jumped on it.

Second, John Robert's contrived decision to approve the health insurance mandate saved Obama's neck. It largely muted the issue despite a high percentage of voters being against it.

Third, the campaign badly mishandled the issue of Mitt's past with Bain Capital. The structure of the campaign allowed them to attack him between the primaries and conventions with a meager response from the Romney campaign.

But here is a bigger question. It was clear structurally that whoever the Republican candidate would be, he or she would likely be short on money after the primaries while waiting for the convention to spend general election funds. Who made the decision to have the convention so late? Historically late! It could have moved it up two weeks to be after the Olympics, or even had it before – July 23-26. Just think how that may have changed the message and minimized the unanswered attack period Obama leveled at the short-on-cash Romney campaign.

The next part to look at is the campaigns. The Obama people flat-out beat Romney's campaign. The polls were close enough and most of the month of October Romney was ahead, but those annoying people like David Axelrod and David Plouffe apparently know what they are doing. No doubt they had a distinct advantage because they set up the reelection campaign in January 2009. That comes with incumbency. Also, not running against a field of wannabes makes it easy to focus your message. But how in the world, when the main issue of the campaign is the economy and Romney is polling better, can the Democrats turn out between four to six percentage points higher. Every poll for the last six months showed Republican intensity levels up substantially and all of the favorite Democrat sub-groups (blacks, unmarried women, Hispanics) down. But as Brit Hume of Fox News said "A low intensity vote counts as much as a high intensity vote." Romney's team did not get the people to the polls and Obama's did.

Which bring us to the next point. This is not Monday-morning quarterbacking. This is knowledge I have had for a while and kept my mouth shut. If I discussed it, it would only serve to discourage supporters of my interest so not being stupid, I kept quiet. Here it is folks – the people running Romney's campaign were not inept, but they weren't much better. There was no Karl Rove there. A lot of these people worked on Meg Whitman's campaign in California and we know how that turned out. Stunningly, they were doing opposition research on Bain Capital this past summer -- as if there was some surprise that Obama's team would attack his business career. Just about anyone in a significant position on this campaign should be permanently retired from working on running and strategizing any Republican campaign. On top of it they were arrogant when they should have been humble. On the other hand, the money people did a buffo job so all of them should be kept.

Reince Preibus has largely done a very fine job at the Republican National Committee (RNC), but they have done a miserable job on outreach to minorities. Another item I kept my mouth shut about is that I found out we have a non-existent Asian outreach program. Asians are the fastest growing minority in America and a natural Republican constituency. A source of mine told me they tried to get outreach to targeted Asian communities and had to do it on their own. We lost the vote big time.

Republicans need to get it in gear with addressing all interest groups. Some Republicans reject that idea because we do not like to classify people, but we can address them Republican style. That means we can treat them like Artur Davis said that he was treated once he became a Republican. As a Dem he was treated as a black man; as a Repub he has been treated like a man.

But let us get perspective while the legions are talking of the end of the Republican Party. First, they still control the House of Representatives. Second, they have 30 Governors who preside over a large majority of the American people. The number of 30 is the highest either party has had in over a decade. The next election in 2014 will not have Obama and his team and, after another disastrous two years of Democrats in charge, there should be major Republican gains. So they did not beat an incumbent President -- it is rarely done. Romney made a valiant effort.

The question moving forward becomes will we survive as America after another four years of Barack Obama. Most of the people I know fear we have already become a dependency society. Four more years of Obama will only bring more. Wait until the EPA starts rolling out more rules. Wait until the 157 commissions and panels in ObamaCare tell us what to do about our healthcare. How many people will be getting food stamps four years from now?

I guess I can think of a personal bright spot out of this. My tax clients will be in need ever more help than they did before. That is unfortunately also a sad one.


Bruce Bialosky is the founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition of California and a former Presidential appointee.


TCR on the Air

Red, White & Blue featuring TCR Editor Gary Polland, liberal commentator David Jones and moderator Linda Lorelle on Fridays at 7:30 pm on PBS Houston Channel 8.1, replaying Sundays at 12:30 p.m. on Channel 8.1, Mondays at 11:30 pm on Channel 8.2 and on the web at www.houstonpbs.org.

Red, White and Blue on pledge break, will return in December.

For a fun feature go to www.houstonpbs.org and under Red White and Blue, you can see commentary about the show and its guests by Gary and David each week. The current show as well as past shows are also available on YouTube.

About Your Editor

Gary Polland is a long-time conservative and Republican spokesman, fund-raiser, and leader who completed three terms as the Harris County Republican Chairman. During his three terms, Gary was described as the most successful county Chairman in America by Human Events - The National Conservative Weekly. He is in his fourteenth year of editing a newsletter dealing with key conservative and Republican issues. The last eleven years he has edited Texas Conservative Review. As a public service for the last 8 years, Gary has published election guides for the GOP primary, general elections and city elections, all with the purpose of assisting conservative candidates. Gary is also in his tenth year of co-hosting Red, White and Blue on PBS Houston. Gary is a practicing attorney and strategic consultant. He can be reached at (713) 621-6335.

© 2012 Texas Conservative Review
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