so I finally managed to watch his speech and I have to agree with Ethan mostly. If you'd read anything a step outside the obvious (i.e. whats on the news) then this would be not the analysis. This would be the thesis.

To give the kid a break, he's 13 and he had a two minute speech but I'll garuntee his book is a no-**** synopsis of conservative rhetorical speech.

For the record, the ideas they are preaching are that governemnt should be limited. Thats conservatism. Whats practiced is republicanism, which is not anti-government, but anti-democratic execution meaning that rather than using govenment to create social programs, they use it to regulate morality because people left to their own devices (according to them) can't be as moral as they should. This gets you practices like....

Banning Stem Cell Research
Prohibition
Prevention of Condoms in schools.

You'll not thats a stark difference between the conservative that would find this level of intervention horrifying.

And thats really the problem. Its not intention or "principles", its practice. And in practice no "conservative" actually is. By all accounts, the democrats execute a more limited government than the republicans do at this point in time.

As for the Obama thing, there is a reaction to him because he is good. Its an easier thing to detract, but I chalk that up to playing to his base. All in all its because he's 13, not because he's intelligent that we're talking about him. The republicans are a gimmick party, and this is another Palin, "suspend the campaign", put *** marriage referendums on the ballot in '04.


I don't know that this is fair. He's a good speaker, and he'll get better with age.

He got more to the point than Rush Limbaugh did. I was watching his speech earlier and his definition led him to say that "conservatives...like people." I honestly hope that Limbaugh doesn't overextend his hand in the Republican party; he's a polarizing figure and his larger involvement in the party could only hope to act divisively.

If the Republican party hopes to actually be a contender for the next elections they need to start composing legitimate campaigns and stop these horrendous publicity stunts. This kid might have known what he was talking about for the two minutes he spoke but it only takes a fifteen minute Wikipedia lesson to reach the same conclusion as him.

Check out the covre of Newsweek.

Leading on morality does not get you those practices. That is a very general statement. Ruling on an irrational morality is what gets you those practices.

Also, there is no way one can prove that democracy will make it any better. Democracy is the rule-by-gang type of thing. That can't possibly be any better than ruling on an irrational morality...

"irrational morality" is far more broad and subjective than "morality." You're perscribing quite a bit more opinion to it than I have.

We have different agendas.

Not really, maybe he was nervous, but I could do better.

Rush Limbaugh has been involved in the party and overextended his hand since the 1990s. He was largely responsible for the "Republican Revolution" of 1994 and Reagan, upon his retirement, dubbed Limbaugh the number one voice for conservatism in America. Even Michael Steele, the head of the Republican National Convention, had to apologize for criticizing him. Which was ironic considering he was responding to Rahm Emanuel who basically said everyone in the Republican party was Limbaugh's bitch.

Anyway the next four, possibly eight, years will be good for Limbaugh just like the nineties were. I'm convinced he votes Democratic, he was never so successful as when he had Bill Clinton to attack and the beginning of his relationship with Obama is proving to be just the same.

Yeah I think this kid has what it takes to be the next Limbaugh, but being an 8th grader, he's probably a lot smarter.

If you believe morality is wrong then you aren't living life. That means that you believe pursuing a goal is wrong. I am not even being picky. The misuse of terms like this is annoying. A morality is a code that is set to lead one to a goal. That is what a morality is. I really hope you aren't against that...

To me, it looks like you mean morality in a sense where people say things are right and wrong such as sexual immorality, and etc. Those would be "irrational moralities" because the basis for their morality has not been reasoned out.

My two cents on this matter, I guess, is that most politicians remind me of children so for a child to act like a politician is not very surprising (yet disturbing). I had an opinion about politics when I was 13 but fortunately for me I was a lot more interested in chasing girls and riding a skateboard.