#20

Brief answers to your questions.

1) So long as it's in the opposition, where should the Republican Party focus its energy?

Go back to conservative roots--smaller government- cut the spending-find and the eliminate wasteful spending.

2) What is the most worrisome part of Barack Obama's presidency?

The extreem liberal agenda and taking America into an era we may not be able to recover from-a danger to our future generations


3) There's been a lot of debate about the role that talk radio and cable news hosts should play on the right. Particularly controversial are Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Mark Levin. What do you think about these folks? Do they help the right or hurt it (or is it more complicated than that?) How should Republicans interact with them?

Yes the Republican Party should listen to these voices. In many instances this is the only voice in the media that will hold the politicians accountable


4) One particularly fraught controversy pertains to race in America -- with the first black president in the White House, some conservatives have been criticized as racists for opposing him, and some on the right have accused the Obama Administration or its allies of racism or anti-white sentiments (for example, Sonja Sottomayor's "wise Latina" comment drew fire, as did the Skip Gates incident). As the right thinks about political strategy and policy, how should it approach matters of race?

Everyone should judge others by their character and not the color of their skins. Republicans are by far not the racist--I have observed a sense of racism in the older yellow dogs and the blind voting for a man just because he is black.


5) Is there anything you observe locally, or that Republicans in your area of the country care about, that doesn't get sufficient attention in the national media conversation? If so tell me a bit about the issue, and the approach you think the right ought to take.

There needs to be a fair and balanced approach to the national media reporting on the issues and a more intense "look" at the people makinng decisions for America and its laws.



6) Traditionally the Republican Party has been a coalition of religious conservatives, libertarians, fiscal conservatives, and national security conservatives. Is that alliance viable going forward? If so, what must be done to hold it together? If not, what alliance should the GOP try to build?

These are the core of the RP and most of the issues and values will be accepted by the vast majority of Americans if it is articulated properly. There will be no free lunches and we will pay for the current mistakes in the near future.


7) Is there anything I didn't ask about that you'd like the media or the country as a whole to know?

Need to show America in a visual form how much a trillion dollars really is. Truly mindboggling.

I have traveled in Wyoming, Montana and SD and to several parts of Texas over the last couple of months and the political conversation has been 80% in shock and awe over what is happening to our country --in a bad way.

Hope you find my brief comments helpful.

Joe L. Ward
Fannin County Texas