The Republican Women of Washington County Welcomes You!

“The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.”

Patrick Henry - speech in the Virginia Convention

March 23, 1775

I’ve been thinking all week about how I could use the story of the winner of the Kentucky Derby in my blog this week. Now “let me be clear,” to quote a few words from our President, I’m not a follower of horse racing. But a good horse-story always tugs at my heart strings. I think I’ve come up with the tie in. The campaign we’re in, in this next election, is a real-come-from- behind story. We’re not riding an unknown horse, but the odds have generally been against us, at least up to this point. It’s now up to us to be vigilant, active, and brave and ride this horse to victory!

One of the odds to overcome is spelled out in this City Journal article. Another reason for our horse (candidate) to win is found in this American Thinker article. We see that taking back the Senate and preserving control of the House will just not be enough, we must take the White House too.

President Obama managed to evolve on his position on gay marriage this week. Read about it here. The timing couldn’t have been better. It was just the day before his fund raising event in George Clooney’s backyard which netted his campaign $15 million dollars. This article in Townhall seems to back up the timing issue. And wonder of all wonders (!), the Official Obama Campaign Store has all the merchandise just waiting for your orders. Check it out here.

We know that before the 2008 election, we knew little about President Obama as a candidate. The MSM was so enamored with the man that they didn’t want to dig into his past. Maybe things will change this time around. This editorial in the Washington Examiner gives a glimmer of hope for learning a bit more. This article in the Washington Free Beacon gives us another glimpse into the man.

We’ll leave the horse race for now and move on to other issues in the news. The Law of the Sea Treaty, LOST, is back in the news. It’s been around since 1982 when then President Reagan managed to keep it from being ratified. This next story in Human Events tells about the new push to ratify it and this one in US News says why it shouldn’t be ratified. Let’s hope our representatives in Washington will have the good sense to do the right thing.

Utah’s 2nd Congressional District race was in the news again this week. GOP state chairman, Thomas Wright released his report stating that nothing nefarious was found in the controversy at the State Convention. You can read it here. Candidate Howard Wallack gave his view of the issue to The Salt Lake Tribune in this article. Here’s a little more on the subject from the Deseret News. Later in the week, Bob Bernick of Utah Policy, found fault with the Utah caucus/convention system as the cause of the mistakes made at the state convention. Read about it here.

Utah caught a break this past week when Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, signed off on letting us drill for some natural gas. Here’s the story. Forgive me if I sound a little cynical, but this is just one baby step to putting us on the road to energy independence. This article gives a little different slant to the story. And even our guys in Washington got in on the act. Read about it here in The Hill.

Representative Ken Ivory gave a very thorough view of Utah’s fight for return of its land at our last WCRW meeting. This article deals with roads and rights-of-way that date back to the Civil War era. The fight is just beginning, let’s hope we can prevail.

One last piece of good news for our state is found in this report from ALEC, which paints a positive picture for Utah’s future.