What Conservatives can Learn from the French
Newt Gingrich wrote an article in today's FT. The article is restricted,but here is a summary:
His essential points were that even though Sarkozy came from an unpopular conservative government, he was able to convince the public of the need for drastic reform and sacrifice. Prior to the elections, it was conventional wisdom that the Socialists would win. However, the socialists merely wanted to maintain the status quo, whereas Sarkozy was able to convince the public that bold new direction was needed to keep the country from being mired in a long, slow decay.
The message is that American conservatives need to focus on both "the vision thing" and remind the people that policies matter more than personalities.
Discuss!
I think that what NG doesn't realize is that a "conservative" in France would be a centrist-liberal on the American spectrum.
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Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but Markov Chains excite me.
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06-12-2007, 01:58 PM
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