I was going to blog about this sooner, but it looks like there is already an effort among Republicans to retool and renovate the GOP. Called “Rebuild the Party,” it’s a group of young conservatives under the age of 40. In many ways, they have learned from the Obama campaign and are using technology to help in finding ways to modernize the party. Here are a few words from the homepage: As Republicans, we face a choice. Either we can spend the next several months — or years...

As I write this a day after Election Day, I feel a bit angry, not at the election results, but at the party that I have tried to make a home in: the Republican Party. For years, I have been involved in trying to help steer the party away from the hard right and more to the center right. It has not been easy and at times, it has felt rather fruitless. Tonight, it not only seems fruitless, but pointless. Republican leaders seem to have a tin ear when it comes to dealing with the future of the party....

One of the reasons that I have liked John McCain is because he adheres to some old values like honor and respect. As the Arizona Senator delivered his concession speech, he did it with the grace and humility that is classic John McCain. How we lose is just as important as how we win. If Obama showed solemnity in winning, McCain showed honor in losing. Kudos to Senator McCain.

It’s hard for me to hold back tears right now. Philosophically, I am a conservative and a Republican, so some level it is sad to see the GOP lose so dramatically. But I am also an African American. My father grew up in the Jim Crow South, and I’ve faced my share of racism and discrimination. Tonight, as my partner Daniel and I heard now President-elect Obama speak, I started to shed tears and that says a lot, since I don’t cry that often. I’m crying because something unimaginable...

My partner Daniel and I went to vote at our polling station around noon today in North Minneapolis. It was nice and sunny here in Minnesota for early November, with temps in the upper 60s. Strangely, there were no lines at the station, so we went in to vote immediately…almost. Daniel and I had moved five blocks away and we didn’t think to update our state with our new address. Thank goodness that Minnesota is one of the few states that has same-day registration, so we were able to...

Since I am now one of those “Obamacons,” I wanted to ask a question of those who are questioning those who would jump-ship and vote for someone that is so opposite from our views. Daniel Larison can understand why people are upset: the most credible pro-Obama argument that can be made is that the GOP must be held accountable and Obama is not McCain, but I still don’t think that is a persuasive case for casting a vote for Obama, much less urging others to do likewise. You have to believe...

Republicans Against 8 have released one final ad before Tuesday’s vote that, if approved, would ban same-sex marriage in California, which has been legal since the summer. The ad goes back in time to 1978, when the Briggs Initiative threatened to ban gay teachers from teaching in schools. Ronald Reagan came out against Briggs. The ad then flash-forwards to the present when current Governor, and fellow Republican, Arnold Schwarzenegger came out against banning gay marriage: If you know of...

A few weeks ago, my partner Daniel woke me out of a deep sleep. He was complaining of chest pains, so we got dressed and went to a nearby hospital. I went into emergency with him as they tried to find out if this was his heart or something else. It turned out he was having a gallbladder attack and he was scheduled to have surgery the next day. The day of surgery, I met up with his sister and her husband and also placed a copy of Daniel’s health care directive in my backpack just in case....

We haven’t even voted yet and there are people thinking about 2010. One of the things that I have noticed over time is that the hard left in the Democratic Party is acting very eerily to the far right in the GOP: looking for those who don’t fit their agenda and taking them out via elections. The Hill Newspaper is reporting that a new progressive group backed by two unions, MoveOn.org and two liberal bloggers are planning to target centrist Democrats in 2010 by running progressive candidates...

My partner told me about this post by Los Angeles Times blogger Patrick Goldstein, where he interviews Michael DeLuca, a Hollywood conservative (a rarity) who is leaning towards Obama in this year’s race, but grudgingly. His words read like something I would say, heck it IS something I said. He liked McCain, but wonders what happened to the McCain of 2000: As much as I’ve been impressed by Barack Obama’s ascension, I was sure that this year would be an easy call for me. McCain would have...

Danielle Crittenden, the wife of conservative writer, David Frum, is putting a lie to the belief among some conservatives that the only people against VP candidate Sarah Palin are elitist snobs who go to Ivy League Schools. But Ms. Crittenden is no such person. She never went to college, having gone straight into the family business of running a newspaper and becoming an “ink-stained wretch.” She says that she like the idea of the Alaskan governor: I love the idea of Sarah Palin. She...

Republicans Against 8, an initiative by Log Cabin Republicans to defeat the California proposition that would ban same-sex marriage has released two more ads: “Join Us,” and “Defending Freedom.”

One more rat is leaving the ship… This is not the easiest post for me to write. I am at heart, a moderate Republican, a conservative. I have been involved with the party and have supported GOP candidates. I’m not looking forward to the coming Democratic tsunami that’s coming. I have many liberal friends and I’m married to one, but that doesn’t mean I always agree with them – which is why I am a Republican. I also like John McCain. McCain has been a committed...

The common perception is that the GOP is anti-gay. While there are many Republicans who are homophobic, there are also many who are very gay-friendly and willing to stand up for gay rights and, in this case, against Proposition 8, the proposal that would ban gay marriage in California. One such person is Tom Campbell a former Republican legislator in California. He says: Republicans believe deeply that government should be limited. Government has no business making distinctions between people based...

Ah, Rush: “How come the conservative movement is fracturing,?” when there’s a blueprint for winning it, 1980, there’s a blueprint. McCain is not the blueprint for how Republicans win landslides. Going after moderates, independents, and all these yokels is not the blueprint. The blueprint’s there, 1994, taking back the House, the blueprint’s there. Why are these people ignoring it? Did this jerk forget the “Reagan Democrats?” Alex Massie notes...

With the seemingly-likely blowout of the GOP from the halls of power, there has been a lot of talk about what will happen to the conservative moment. Blogger Peter Suderman believes it’s a bit premature to say that conservatism is doomed: I don’t want to go too far down the road of arguing that the right doesn’t have problems. It does, and I desperately hope that it takes this current moment of confusion and anxiety as the impetus for some serious soul-searching and reform. But the drama...

The lead article in this week’s Newsweek describes the United States as a “center-right” nation, and that Democrats must realize that fact or risk defeat. Author Jon Meacham writes: The argument I am making—that we are at heart a right-leaning country skeptical of government once a crisis that requires government has passed—is probably going to look dumb, or at least out of step, for many months to come. A big blue tsunami appears imminent. Election night and the first phase...

In their endorsement of Barack Obama for President, the Houston Chronicle had this to say about a lost opportunity for John McCain: McCain has an illustrious record of service to America, first as a pilot taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese, and then with a distinguished Senate career. To his credit, he has broken with his own party in the past to fight for campaign reform, oppose the sanctioning of torture and acknowledge the threat of human-induced global warming. However, in his bid for the...

Ross Douthat has a good read about how some in the media are depicting McCain-Palin rallies. I really just want to focus on the last paragraph: But of course, everybody knows that conservative hate – especially when it comes from anonymous hecklers at massive rallies, or when it involves booing the press – is fascism come round again, but left-wing hate is just, well, kitschy and adorable. Now, there is no excusing some of the vitriol that comes from conservatives. But I’ve been...

I don’t usually care for Nick Coleman, the liberal columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (don’t worry, I don’t like the conservative columnist, Kate Kersten, either. They are both jerks.). However, he does a have a good profile of Aubrey Immelman, the moderate Republican who challenged Michelle Bachmann for the Republican primary in the MN-6 and who has now revived his candidacy as a write-in campaign. Here is how Coleman describes Immelman: A South African immigrant to the...

Bloggingheads.tv has a great conversation between Daniel Larison of the American Conservative and Eli Lake of the lamented New York Sun, on the tactic among liberals to draw hidden meanings from McCain ads (e.g.; the celebrity ad with Britney and Paris-white-women-paired with a picture of Obama) and things supposedly said at McCain rallies. I think the conversation is important because as Eli Lake says, it tends to demolish the “plain meaning” of speech, or at least the speech coming...

I look up to Colin Powell. He’s a fellow black man that happens to be a moderate Republican like me. When there was speculation back in the mid-90s that he might run for president, I was hopeful. Here was a black man who had a real shot at the White House. When he became Secretary of State under Bush, I was excited that we had our first African American Secretary of State, a black man sharing the world stage. But it isn’t mere racial pride that has made me an admirer of the former head...

Aubrey Immelman, the Republican challenger against US Representative Michelle Bachmann says his write-in campaign is about a referendum on the state of the GOP: He says one thing he will NOT do is ask Democrats to vote for him. He says he wants his candidacy to be a Republican referendum on Representative Bachmann and the direction the party has taken this country. I’ve donated to his campaign. He may not win, but this is about one Republican speaking out against people like Michelle Bachmann...

After Michelle Bachmann’s spectacular flameout of an interview on Friday on MSNBC, her Democratic challenger in Minnesota’s Sixth District, Elwyn Tinklenberg, received a big boost in donations to his campaign. Now it looks like Bachmann’s GOP challenger in the September primary, Aubrey Immelman, is getting back into the race as a write-in candidate:

My hometown newspaper, the Flint Journal, has a fascinating story of two sisters named McCain, who are descendants of slaves owned by Senator John McCain’s great-great grandfather. It’s a great read about American history. Check it out.