Watchers Council Nominations - Conservative Wins And Losses

Each week, the members of the Watchers Council nominate one of their own posts and a second from outside the Council for consideration by other council members in a contest for the week's best post. Last week's submissions were written in the background of the grassroots victory over Scozzafava in the NY-23, polls showing a Republican crush in Virginia, and the promise of at least moral victory in deep blue New Jersey. The eventual top posts expressed a kind of justifiable sanguine confidence in the future of conservativism.

Post-PelosiCare, things are looking less rosy. In Britain even the Conservatives have to express "100% support" for the NHS, the political reality in a nation long ago infantalized by government paternalism. Promises of grassroots anger have a lot less sting when you project out 3 years into a political environment where taxpayers, having been drained of wealth and holding up an incredible national debt, have no choice but to turn to the government for their health care. The rationalizations will be fast, furious, and vapid - but they'll be ubiquitous.

This week is starting off badly enough, with Iranian triumphalism abroad and the possibility of an anti-Israel ambush in DC. You know, there's a theory under which a country that abandons its friends while supplicating its enemies isn't laying the foundation for future prosperity. Anyway, evaluate for yourselves:

Council Submissions
* Joshuapundit - Conservatives Win In NY 23
* The Provocateur - Interview With Wade Rathke II
* The Glittering Eye - What's A Foreseeable Rate of Taxation?
* Bookworm Room - Do They Even Listen to Themselves?
* Right Truth - Half of all U.S. children will be on food stamps according to study
* The Razor - Laws Need Limits
* The Colossus of Rhodey - Once again, the Democrats back vote fraud
* Mere Rhetoric - The Omri Ceren Show - 2pm PST - Barry Rubin On Lebanon's Crisis And Ours