Lemuel has a really good analysis of the Republicans in the past 20 years over at Hillbilly White Trash.  The whole thing is very good, but some of my favorite parts are:

The Republican party cannot achieve majority status if its program is simply to run along behind the Democrats calling out “me too, me too - but just not quite as much”.

For far too long Republicans and “conservatives” have been mainly occupied with looking at whichever bit of socialism the Democrats are currently pushing and coming up with their own plan which goes in the same direction, but just not as far.

The Republican party has worked hard for 20 and more years to earn its coming defeat. It is my hope that the party will at long last learn its lesson and understand that it must be a conservative party. I pray that it comes to understand that the Republican tent must be large enough to hold everyone who upholds the three pillars of conservatism, social conservatism, fiscal conservatism and foreign policy conservatism. But not one square inch larger.

The trend since Reagan has been government for government’s sake - especially with the Republicans spending like drunken sailors before they got kicked out of power in 2006.  Our future doesn’t look very good at this moment - either as a Party or as a Country.

From the good ladies at Go Fug Yourself:

It’s like she’s only now realizing that she skipped the day in Clown College when they covered pants.

Thanks to the Dissident Frogman:

Some really eye-catching photos at Abuzeedo:

House of Erasthones has a good starting list including:

7. Obama asserts Israel’s right to exist.

3. Obama answers a question directly and substantively instead of launching into a diatribe about how badly George Bush has handled something.

2. Obama calls on Jimmy Carter to be quiet, and for once earn this “dignified elder statesman” label people keep putting on him.

1. He says some nice things about America.

I might add a few:

• Obama calls on America to explore its coasts and wildnernesses for oil and gas in order to reduce dependence on foreign sources
• Obama actually realizes that raising the capital gains tax would REDUCE revenues (along with hurting the economy)
• Obama announces he would hold our enemies like Achmadinacrazy and Hugo “Fidel” Chavez to the same ethical standards as he does of Republicans
• Obama announces that increasing America to 57 states would be a good thing

From Frank J at IMAO:

TOP TEN THINGS WE’LL MISS ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON

10. That special way our soul aches every time we see her.

9. The way her laugh rid the neighborhood of stray cats.

8. How her smile melts steel.

7. When she said she’d obliterate a country, you knew she meant it.

6. How, despite all the trouble he’s caused, she’s spared the life of her husband because she still loves him.

5. The way she referred to babies as “fresh souls” as if she were talking about produce.

4. How in her debates with Obama, you could see in her eyes that she was truly plotting to kill him.

3. When she went to YearlyKos, the Kos Kids would scatter and hide under furniture like cockroaches.

2. How she’d fight for universal healthcare despite the fact that you knew in her heart she wouldn’t care if we all died.

And the number one thing we’ll miss about Hillary Clinton…

It was nice to know there was at least one Democrat out there with balls.

Some humorous photos on this theme at Malaysian Bloggers United:

Do we actually have a Republican Senator who gets it?  Sounds like Mitch McConnell might:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a likely preview of the Republican line of attack in the general election, said Democratic leaders and Mr. Obama “get up every morning with three things on their minds: more taxes, more regulation and more litigation.”

“It’s pretty clear to me that the Democratic agenda is to turn us into France,” the Kentucky Republican told The Washington Times in an unusually blunt interview at his office in the Capitol. “Americans may want change, but the question is, what kind of change?”

From Lt. G at Kaboom:

Lord, give me the strength not to attack with a baseball bat every fool and every chickenhawk and every Apathy Kid and every soft elitist and every intellectual hack and every Jody and every yuppie and every thirty-something child still finding himself when I get home. It’s not worth my time. Do give me the strength to convince them to stop breeding and to kill themselves, in the name of bettering America. It’s the only chance we have.

Jody- The non-military guy who is back home with the military guy’s wife/girlfriend. Jody leads a simple, soft life, and vengeance upon him will be swift and merciless.