At the 2008 Republican Convention in Minnesota, I had the pleasure of meeting Tony Blankley.
http://townhall.com/columnists/TonyBlankley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blankley
Tony Blankley was the former Press Secretary for House Speaker Newt Gingrich back in 1994. The republican revolution that began under Ronald Reagan had just won a decisive mandate to rein in the democrats.
While 2008 was every bit as tough a year for the GOP as 1992, the hope among republicans is that 2010 will replicate 1994.
With that, I bring my interview of Tony Blankley.
1) What are the most important issues of 2008?
TB: “Obamanomics. It will be disastrous. It will drive businesses offshore. We must lower corporate tax rates to remain competitive in a global marketplace. Obama has a complete misperception of the international scene.”
2) Who are your 3 favorite political heroes?
TB: “I will offer more than three. My political heroes are Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, and Newt Gingrich.”
3) How would you like to be remembered 100 years from now? What would you want people to say about Tony Blankley the person?
TB: “I won’t be remembered at all. I am English. We do not even remember our kings.”
4) What should be the legacy of your former boss Newt Gingrich?
TB: “Newt Gingrich took back the Congress after 40 years of rule by the other side. He was the second tranche of the Reagan revolution.”
Not only was Tony Blankley gracious with his time, but he is also very funny. He had a very tough job as the spokeperson for a controversial figure that was constantly under the microscope. Mr. Blankley did his job well, as the Contract With America did get passed by the House in the first 100 days of that session.
Whether one agreed with the legislation or not, the republicans made promises and kept them. Tony Blankley constantly reminded the media that elected leaders actually did what they said they would do.
Boldness among politicians is in short supply in 2008, and those eloquent enough to adequately explain the message are even rarer.
Tony Blankley did his job with class, grace, and efficiency. It was a joy to let him know this.
One of the things that is killing the GOP is an inability to get the message out. It is not that the policies are wrong. We are right, the liberals are dead wrong, and yet the left is simply better at marketing. No matter how good the product is, without marketing, sales will die.
The GOP will get Congress and the White House back once the other side again proves that their abilities end with winning elctions. Republicans can actually govern. Yet to get over this electoral blip and continue the rightward drift of America, we have to do more than govern. We need to get the message out to the people past a hostile media.
We have the politicians and the foot soldiers. Now we need the best spokespeople.
We need more people like Tony Blankley.
eric
“once the other side again proves that their abilities end with winning elctions.”
Unfortunatley this will only come about by examples of failure cast in the next four years.
“Buyers remorse” will be the buzz word for the next few years and BDS will subside as they all realize at some point they have no one to blame but themselves, no matter what the media says, which I gather upon realizing this also will be to Obama nothing more than a pack of piranhas.
The bar has been set unrealistically high, he almost has no choice but to fail.
This is why I assume in his victory speech he already started to make concessions for himself by saying;
“The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term.”
Sounds like hes already looking at his second term without doin a damn thing in the first one.
” And we know the government can’t solve every problem.”
Hmm… almost all of his solutions did involve government.
Buckle up dudes.
I always hated salesmen. I actually quit two jobs over the years because they wanted me in sales and I just couldn’t stomache it. I have a firm belief: a good product sells itself. If “marketing” is what the GOP thinks it needs, then what it really needs is a new product. And part of that new product has to be admitting that no one is entirely right or entirely wrong. That sort of pigheadedness is what got you guys back into the minority again. Politics is not an exact science with absolute truths and falses. Politics is the art of compromise to get the best possible outcome. There’s no perfect absolutes in the art of politics. As long as you guys continue to think otherwise, you’ll continue to be the butt of jokes among the educated.
Look at your party now. You’re practically nothing but old, white, uneducated blockheads. Your electoral map looks like a tour guide for “most boring places on the planet.” You’ve lost all the minorites. The 18-29ers are now all Democrats and liberals and history shows that most of them will stay that way. You’ve lost an entire generation. They watched failure right before their eyes and they won’t be fooled again. Heck, they weren’t even fooled the first time. Either you change your product, like every other sector in history, or face obsolescence.
You guys are stuck in the past, and worse still, a past that never even existed. It’s forever 1980 in GOP Land. Wake up, you old fogeys! It’s the 21st century! You guys are like the 19th century, still using child labor (albeit in foreign countries), still trying to keep women like Victorian dolls, still sycophants of class and wealth, still all an all old white boys club, still hung-up on stupid social “issues,” still holding back the future with all your might for fear of your inevitable extinction, still holding out the same worn-out answers to constantly new and changing questions. You’re like demented grandfathers who can’t figure out ‘dem carnfounded kids and ‘der crazy contraptions. Your sticks are still on the flys, and the flies now gather around them.
Chuck Hagel was right comparing you guys to the “Know Nothings.” And you guys think Sarah Palin is the future face of the party??? Give me a break? Are you serious? She’s a living joke! You’ll be laughed so hard out of the next election you’d be lucky to win Alaska! Why do you think Fox put the hit job out on her? They realized that if that joke of a human being is the face of the party, no one will take the GOP seriously with the exception of under-80 IQ vote. Meanwhile Hagel gets lambasted by the big-talk no-walk Malkins and Limbaughs for handing their behinds to them and guys like Hagel are probably the best chance you’ll vere have of making a comeback. At least he has the occasional original thought! At least he’s not an intransigent ideologue who lives in a comic-book universe and has no clue in the world what real life is all about.
You guys have to come up with something new for once, will ya’? And please, stop dumbing yourselves down. This unholy alliance of Wall Streeters and Jesuslanders is only goiing to lead to disaster. It’s time you two divorce. What’s the big deal? No one gets divorced more than Wall Streeters and Jesuslanders. It should be second nature by now. Then maybe you can think of something new for a change.
There. I feel better now. Sorry about the rant. I just hate not having any choices anymore. The Dems aren’t all that much better, but I hate to just vote for one party. Eventually, they’ll just take advantage like you guys did.
How is Tony Blankley anyway? He looked like he was seriously ill not long ago, and then he seemed to have bounced back. He lost a lot of weight, but not in what seemed a good way. Was he sick? I always enjoyed him on McLaughlin. And what the heck ever happened to his accent? He’s too old to change accents, d@mm!t! I thought there was an old unwritten rule about that – “thou shalt not change accents overeth the age of two score.” I like him, though. I hope he’s doin’ well.
JMJ
“Eventually, they’ll just take advantage like you guys did. ”
Which is why historically the right has won more elections.
We all take advatage, its the end product that counts, and your product has never determined anything but the end of capitalism and individualism.
We will do the same thing you guys and Obama did , but maybe with a concession ot two
Whereas all you guys have done is put a bright new face, coat of paint, on a 60s mentallity and tried to repackage old failed ideas, such as socialism. Hell, most of Obamas appointees are from the Clinton cabinet, where the hell’s the change in that ?
Aint nothin fresh or new about you guys at all.
The “right” has historically won more elections? You’ll have to enlighten me on that one, Micky. I’ve never heard quite that put quite that way before. I mean, how exactly do you even historically catagorize “right?”
And what do you mean by “(my) product?” And what historical evidence do you have that my may of thinking leads to “the end of capitalism and individualism?” I think your being ridiculous.
I agree that Obama isn’t bringing much change, but hey, I’ve been saying that all along. Personally, I think only loonies, both righ tand eft, really believed Obama was some kind of radical.
But when it comes to new ideas – changing the military state, diplomacy, taxation, the welfare state, trade, etc – the ONLY change has been coming from the left and center-left. The right has offered NOTHING new whatsoever.
JMJ
“The “right” has historically won more elections? You’ll have to enlighten me on that one, Micky.”
You’re a student of history , right ?
Dont make me show you facts, you know, those funny little things that are actually relevant.
“Product” being the state of the union, Okay ?
Yea, the left has brought change alright, crappiest most useless damn congress in history, for starters
Micky, I really do have no idea what you mean by the “right” winning more elections. I mean, what elections? All elections? Local, county, municiple, state, federal, executive, legislative, judicial – the whole shabang? I don’t know that anyone has ever even attempted to compile statistics on such a subject, let alone analyze them. And what do you mean by “right?” Do you mean Republicans? Are you assuming the Republicans and Democrats of today are reflective of what they were in the past – that all Republicans were always geenrally “right” and all Democrats were all generally “left?” Even if you assumed the former, and you’d be wrong, Repuiblicans have not won more elections than Democrats – they haven’t even been around as long as Democrats, and historically, as long as they have been around, they haven’t won nearly as many elections.
You’d have to show me from where you get that assumption. Otherwise, all I can gather is that you’re just making it up.
As for “products” of the “left,” again, I’m not exactly sure to what you’re referring. Just about all “progress” as we know it in American history has been a product of progressive, “liberal” action. I really can’t think of anything positive that’s come from conservatism. Anything. Really, anything. Even the great military power we have today – at who’s alter you conservatives now kneel – was a product of liberal action. Of course, keeping it huge in peacetime was a conservative idea. I don”t think that’s a good idea, but you can have it if you want it. As for what “liberalism” has brought us, well, here’s a little list (one of thousands out there) of just some accomplishments from the past century…
http://www.umatillacountydemocrats.org/ACCOMPLISHMENTSOFDems.htm
“ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF ‘LIBERAL’
DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTS AND CONGRESSES
1919—Women’s Suffrage Ratified [Wilson]
1920—Annette Adams, First Woman Appointed To An Administration Position
[Wilson]
1933—Federal Deposit Insurance [FDR]
1935—W.P.A. [FDR-put people to work during the depression]
1935—Social Security Act [FDR]
1938—Fair Labor Standards Act [FDR]
1944—G.I. Bill Of Rights [FDR]
1947—Military Desegregated [Truman]
1947—Marshall Plan [Truman-Rebuilt Europe after WW II]
1961—Peace Corps [John F. Kennedy]
1964—Civil Rights Act [Johnson]
1964—Medicare And Medicaid [Johnson]
1964—Fed Dept Of Housing And Urban Development [Johnson]
1965—Head Start Created [Johnson]
1968—Occupation Safety Act [Johnson]
1987—Clean Water Act [Dem Congress override of Reagan veto]
1990—Americans With Disabilities Act [Democratic Congress]
1993—Family Leave Act [Clinton]
1993—AmeriCorps [Clinton]
1996– Largest expansion of college opportunity since the GI Bill [Clinton]
1997– Converted the largest budget deficit in American history to the
largest surplus [Clinton]
1999– Longest economic expansion in American history & Lowest
unemployment in 30 years [Clinton]
Liberal is defined as characterized by opinions or policies favoring progress
ore reform, as in politics or religion; not intolerant or prejudices;
broadminded.
I don’t know why anybody would even want to be a conservative.
JMJ
Presidential elections bub, we are talking about Obama, are we not ?
Since we’re talking about the last congress in place how bout a list of accomplisments for the last two years EINSTIEN !
“I don’t know why anybody would even want to be a conservative.”
Well, why would anyone expect someone so buried in crap expect them to understand ?
Maybe because we take responsabilty for ourselves and dont use lame ass excuses to get away with morally degrading acts to others and ones self ?
Maybe bcause we actaually want to fight and kill our enemies ?
Maybe because we dont feel we have to have uncle sam babysit every damn part of everything ?
Its just because we’re smarter.
And please, dont throw academics at me. Most of you guys go to college and still dont know the difference between a speed bump and a pile of sh*t
“they haven’t even been around as long as Democrats, and historically, as long as they have been around, they haven’t won nearly as many elections.”
Oh my god !!!!
You are such a BS artist !!!
How can you count something that hasnt been around.
What a huge stinking joke dude !!!
Is that what it means to be whatever the hell it is you call yourself (Anything but republican?)
A decietful game playing little boy ?
Since there was a choice there have been 22 republican presidents.
Of course you cant count Washington and Adams. Jefferson, Madison, Monroe,Quincy Adams were not sure what the hell they were anymore than Harrison and Tyler were.
That brings the choice between dems and reps. down to 35 which republicans have won 22 of.
Wise up !!!
You guys will lose big time in 2112, you got hosed by Bambi, the media and your own ignorance along with the fact that Obama has set the bar way too high for himself already, he can only fail at this point.
His own party is starting get pi$$ed at him for appointments, backpeddling, Al Queda just called him out BIG TIME !! and he’s not even in office yet.
I dont do predictions, but I know what a tsunami looks like when its coming.
“Of course, keeping it huge in peacetime was a conservative idea. ”
Thats a lie.
Clinton shrunk our military drastically and still managed more casualties than we have now with two wars.
The facts are all on a post here from a few months back.
But once again you choose to ignore.
“Liberal is defined as characterized by opinions or policies favoring progress only where libs see fit
ore reform, as in politics or religion; not intolerant (only to cons or anyone who disagrees with them, like the gays throwing a fit right now) or prejudices; ( they make up the prejudices, otherwise they would have no platform to run on)
broadminded. Yes “Broads” This is why abortion and teaching sex ed to little children is so important, so they can have broads with no moral responsabilty or consequences.