The re-election of President Obama has left most conservatives in a very pessimistic frame of mind. How could the majority of voters not see Obama had failed to prevent ongoing economic stagnation and the threat of bankruptcy? How could they endorse additional layer upon additional layer of bureaucratic intervention when the economic results were so awful?
Donald J. Devine was Ronald Reagan's pick to head the Office of Personnel Management and is today vice chair of the American Conservative Union. You might see him as the personification of the pessimistic frame of mind. Several years ago he approached me for support for his just-announced campaign for Congress against Maryland's Steny Hoyer. When I asked him why he was running, his answer was as funny as it was honest. "I don' know ... uh...why I'm ... uh... doing this," he said almost woefully in his deep Brooklyn accent. Then he cracked his trademark smile. "Ya want to talk me out of it?" I procured for him a maximum contribution.