Tag Archives: politician

Five Tools of Political Success

BY WILLIAM F. GAVIN

In baseball, a scout looks for the “five tools” while recruiting a prospect: can he hit, hit with power, run, field, and throw?

Now, as the second Obama administration shows signs of unraveling (in the Obama administration, the letters IRS now stand for Intimidate Republican Suspects), the GOP should remember the five tools of a successful political party: it has to have personalities, principles, policies, propaganda, and opportunity.

Allow me for a  moment to briefly discuss the importance of attractive political personalities. This is not original stuff, but as G. K. Chesterton once said, on most important matters, people have to be reminded rather than instructed. Continue reading →

Lincoln or Kagan on Our Rights

BY TONY BLANKLEY

 

Reprinted from Townhall.com

Abraham Lincoln: “I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.” Lincoln address in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Feb. 22, 1861:

“That sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty … to the people of this country … Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon that basis? … if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.”

Lincoln’s inaugural address of March 4, 1861: “The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was ‘to form a more perfect Union.’ ”

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