John Hawkins, responding to a post by Jon Henke, writes about his ideas for a Rightroots movement to help conservatives in the coming years. If I can be Allahpundit for a moment, I’d like to pour some cold water on these big plans because I think any big effort to organize conservatives will run into trouble because of the fundamental difference between conservatives and liberals:

Conservatives have jobs.

Real jobs that produce goods and services and add to the economy. Jobs that gives conservative real satisfaction at the end of the day so they don’t have this hole that needs to be filled with political activism.

I wrote a little bit ago about what occupations appeal to liberals, and if you think about it, I think you’ll realize the big problem for conservatives in politics: Politics is not conservative. Politics is about dicking around with rules and stuff while other people do actual work, so being a politician doesn’t generally appeal to a conservative the same way being a journalist doesn’t. Also, most true conservatives aren’t obsessing over politics as much as someone like me because they have much more important things to worry about. Sure, they vote, but they don’t follow politics more than watching a little news each day and maybe listening to talk radio. Why do you think talk radio has such an appeal to conservatives? Because radio is something you listen to while doing something else — probably something useful. In the end, blogs can’t compete with that (and don’t expect these people to download podcasts).

I think Ace is on the right track of trying to search out and find conservative candidates. As much organization as we can do, it won’t ever do as much good as one good personality. Look how far Obama has gotten when 95% of his appeal is, as Biden would say, that’s he’s clean and articulate. Still, it’s going to be hard to find good conservatives. If I may confess one thing about Sarah Palin that never settled with me right, it’s that one day she woke up and decided to become a politician. She had actual jobs; why would she resort to something like that? The best conservative candidate would be someone who is accomplished in the real world — probably combination military service and businessman — who we’d have to drag kicking and screaming into politics. A guy who would pay for political ads saying, “Please don’t vote for me. I don’t want to be in the House of Representatives; I have a business to run. And if I find who put me on the ballot, I will smash your face in with the butt of my shotgun, you little freak!”

Now that’s a conservative.

Joe the Plumber is kinda promising, as he just fell into politics by asking a question. He seems reasonably informed (but not too informed; be wary of anyone too informed because then he’s spending more time worry about politics than a conservative should). Only problem is that if he gets elected to be a Representative then eventually he’ll become a wonk and have his conservatism all ruined. Eh, I guess we can’t ever really win in the end. The real conservative strategy shouldn’t be to elect politicians but to instead make sure there’s less of them in the world.

Over here (I don’t know how to embed this one).

The future of conservatism is always bright because of the people who are conservatives.

Does he have the temperament to be in Congress?

Who am I kidding? There’s tons of embarrassing loons in the House of Representatives. I don’t know why that district in Pennsylvania needs one, though.

The Puppy Blender has an op-ed in the New York Times about whether Biden or Palin is right about the role of the Vice President (HINT: It’s the one who is sometimes a little flustered in interviews because she’s not so good at just making stuff up). I forget if I’ve mentioned this before, but what kind of middle name is “Harlan”? Or is it racist for me to even mention the Puppy Blender’s middle name?

Anyway, for those keeping track, the people allowed to write opinions in the NYT are:
* The extremely liberal.
* People who put puppies in blenders.

Sorry, McCain, you don’t fall into either category. No op-ed for you!

If only the military voted in the election, McCain would win in a landslide of 68% to 23%. That makes sense, because the more that someone likes this country, the more likely he is to vote Republican. So someone who likes this country enough to fight for it is going to be very Republican. I may think I really like this country, but if I explained how much I like this country to someone in the military he’d be like, “You’re pathetic!” and push me down in the mud.

To which I’d say, “Maybe, but pushing me in the mud was a little over the top.”

Anyway, maybe we should consider following the Heinlein principle of only allowing those who’ve served in the military to vote. Sure, I’d lose my vote, but if I really missed it I could stop being so pathetic and join the military. Even if I don’t, though, stop pushing me in the mud.

The Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moallem demanded an explanation for the raid by the US on its territory. Being that IMAO’s main job is to inform, I’ll try to explain things to him. Here’s the facts we had about Syria:

* The country is foreign, which is suspicious.

* The country is in the Middle East — also very suspicious.

* The country is full of Muslims, and, while we don’t like to profile, that is quite suspicious.

* We heard there are guns in the country, which is certainly a cause for concern in light of the other points.

So, adding that all together, Syria is a foreign country in the Middle East full of Muslims with guns. Sounds like they’re up to something to me, hence the raid.

I hope that explains things for you, Walid.

I don’t know what it is about her, but she creeps me out.

We’ve already had the worst news we’ll get this election season: Dean Barnett has passed away at age 41 from cystic fibrosis. He was one of my favorite bloggers, as he had just the right combination of smarts and humor. And though I only know him from a couple e-mail correspondents, I can say he was a great guy. It’s hard to think that next year — however things end up — we’ll be going into it without his wit and wisdom.

You can probably find tributes to him at about every blog, but here’s one from Hugh Hewitt who he sometimes subbed for (and also mentions a short essay Dean wrote on his condition called The Plucky Smart Kid with the Fatal Disease).

Here’s how best to remember him. Here’s one of his famous FAQs (which were perfect for someone as ADD as me) on what the surge was and why it would work.

Rest in peace.