A great column by YAF's Jason Mattera writing at WaPo:

Long before Mr. Obama began appealing to the elusive youth vote, "The Gipper" attracted thousands of young people to his cause. The historic attendance at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987 and the anti-communism speeches delivered at Notre Dame University and Moscow State University are just a few examples. The youths' enthusiasm for Mr. Reagan, entrenched in the substance of his message, not merely a superficial charm, resulted in election-changing votes - allowing him to capture 59 percent of the youth vote in 1984. To put this in perspective, not even Bill Clinton could surpass that margin, even though at 22 years Mr. Reagan's junior when elected, he took unusual steps to court younger voters, such as blabbering about his underwear on MTV and playing the saxophone on late-night talk shows.

Full column here.

 

"Despite what some in the press may say, we who are proud to call ourselves 'conservative' are not a minority of a minority party; we are part of the great majority of Americans of both major parties and of most of the independents as well."

Six Meat Buffet interviewed Alaska businessman David Cuddy, who is challenging incumbent Senator Ted Stevens.  An excerpt from Cuddy's remarks:

The Republicans had their chance from 1994 to present to bring reform, limited government, personal responsibility, and to fix our problems of overspending and fixing Medicare and Social Security and didn’t do it. In fact, they failed worse than the Democrats did.

 

Stevens represents the worst of the Republicans of that era. The Republicans are going to take a beating nationally for this reason. I represent the positions that the Republicans only say they want to represent.

 

If the Republican Party wants to regain credibility, it will have to eschew the failed politicians like Stevens and embrace the philosophically pure challengers who will bring the reform the Republicans say they want.

Full interview here.

A wide variety of conservative bloggers are in Houston this weekend blogging the Texas State GOP Convention. Blogs covering the convention include RhymesWithRight, bizplusblog.com, RepublicOfDave.com and Jawa Report.

The major happening of the convention so far was the passage of the state party platform and re-election of state party chairman Tina Benkiser. The remaining point of contention is the race between Cathie Adams and 'Borah van Dormolen.

Though defeated in the 1964 presidential race, "Goldwater became an icon for conservatism, starting a movement which many believe led to the election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980," the resolution states.

As an Arizonan born three years before statehood, Goldwater was a quintessential Westerner who had a lifelong "love affair" with the state that including helping establish the Arizona Air National Guard and extensively photographing its landscapes and its peoples, including Native Americans, the resolution stated.

The House approved the resolution (HJR2001) on a 58-1 vote, sending it to the Senate.