As a conservative, I found Michael Medved's Wednesday, October 22, 2008 column, The Consequences of Defeat, to be chilling. Ninety percent of the post was, not only correct, but was dead-on correct. The ten percent with which I disagree is the long-term cost of Obama winning.  The presidency of Senator Obama could be overcome in far less than a decade.

What Medved misses is the historical precedent of the first Clinton mid-term election.  The last time this nation had a 3-way lock on our federal government, a church burned, a mother was killed with a baby in her arms, and a federal "assault weapons" ban sailed through.  I fear they will happen again, and worse, with the tacit approval of Senator Reid, Representative Pelosi, the major media, and a lot of angry liberals running our nation.

Like a wildfire clearing excessive brush, the holocaust will lead to a renewal of purpose, and an invigoration of will.  Both houses will face the prospect of another change of majority, and even an incumbent president may feel the pressure at election time.  Even the mainstream media will feel the heat as the broken promises mount, and the nation pays the bill for their tried-and-failed attempts to force their misguided compassion down the throats of die-hard capitalists.  The lies will be harder and harder to explain believably.

The key problem conservatism faces is not its own demise, but a fundamentally flawed leadership.  Senator McCain may be a good Senator, and a passable conservative, but was he the best possible GOP candidate? That is as true as saying Senator Obama was the best possible Dem candidate.  Neither party chose its best candidate. The nation will have to deal with second best (and that's being diplomatic) either way.  It won't take long for the nation to learn the new President is not the great leader they were sold as being.

Even President Bush turned out to be only a half-hearted conservative. His Supreme Court appointments are likely to be the only lasting part of his legacy worth remembering. Certainly his "New Tone" accomplished nothing! In fact, his weakness in responding to liberal assaults on, not only himself, but his values, cost a lot of good Republicans their careers.

A Republican in the White House is greatly to be desired. Supreme Court nominations are critical at this point in our country's existence. Yet, any McCain nominee will be viciously opposed if they have any merit. Any expectation of the Congress going along with hypothetical-President McCain's suggestions are fantastically optimistic. This nation would no more than survive, as it would under hypo-Pres. Obama. The difference is, the media would blast McCain, as viciously as they will defend Obama. For 4 years, they would blame every little problem on McCain (a la Katrina), and put a microphone in front of every Dem who disagreed with him. With Obama and Dem majorities, it would be impossible to blame Republicans, unless they were willing dupes. In 2010, we might see a resulting mass-ejection of liberal and moderate political hacks, as we did in 1994.

I don't know who will win.  It's not over yet, but a loss would not be the end. It might, however, be the start of the end of the insanity. Just as we should not give up on this presidential election, we should resolve to keep fighting for our ideals whether Senator McCain wins this election or not. Sometimes it takes a defeat to get a group to start yearning for victory, and sometimes victory kills the hunger for more victory. The last 14 years show these to be too often true.