I great piece on how failure is always an option (yeah, I know it’s old):

I was going to write about the curious fact that it’s not only mathematically possible but now even somewhat plausible that Republicans could take over the Senate in November; but everybody and his monkey’s paw is already going on about that. So I’m shifting gears: Instead, I’ll argue against Michael Medved and every other conservative who repeats the stupid mantra that “Of course we hope President Obama is successful!”

That way, my only competition is Rush Limbaugh, whose explanation is kind of shallow, to tell the truth.

When some caller presses Medved on what the heck he means, he has a pat, memorized answer. Alas, it’s a complete non-sequitur. Medved invariably explains that he doesn’t mean he hopes Barack H. Obama succeeds in passing card check, implementing energy cripple and tax, closing Gitmo, ending the war against the Iran/al-Qaeda Axis, nationalizing more banks and other corporations, raising taxes, spending us into oblivion, and for dessert, foisting ObamaCare on the charred remains. Rather, Medved insists that by “I hope the president is successful,” he means he hopes that Obama succeeds in leading America to prosperity, security, and liberty.

This explanation is nothing but Mueslix on stilts: nutty, flakey, and wobbly all at the same time.

Medved is engaging in what I call “Argument by Tendentious Redefinition.” With that rhetorical trick, proponent takes an ordinary, simple English-language word (such as “success”) and secretly redefines it to a meaning whose only purpose is to win the argument — while still relying upon people imagining that he still means the generally accepted definition. In this case, the word “success” (meaning, achieving a goal one has set) is transmogrified to mean, achieving the goal diametrically opposite what one has enunciated, but which happens to be more congenial to the “well-wisher.”

When Michael Medved or any of a score of conservative pundits says he hopes Obama succeeds, it’s really code for saying he hopes Obama converts to conservatism. While that may be a laudible wish, it’s definitely not covered by the word “success.”

……But I have never in my entire life been a liberal; I was never trained to think of a black man or some other minority as a representative of some group, or that his failure was due to the white man “holding him down for 300 years,” as many blacktivists insist. Consequently, I feel no guilt whatsoever wishing abject failure upon Barack H. Obama: Success as Obama defines it is anathema to me, so why on Earth would I wish for it?

In fact, one of our most important rights is the right to fail: By failing, we learn, we grow, we mature… or at least we can. And I would never be so cruel as to take away anybody’s right to fail by, e.g., supporting a government Bureau of Bad Breaks, which tries to make good (at taxpayer expense) any setback or adverse result of poor judgment — like not buying health insurance and then getting sick or injured. That’s a liberal idea, and I despise it as unAmerican and infantalizing.

I particularly like his comment on how he has never been a liberal.  I too, have felt this way.  Even as a kid I always had, what I now know as, conservative beliefs.  I knew that if I wanted something I had to work for it.  It wasn’t just given to me.  I knew that whatever punishment I received it was because of the actions or decisions I made.  It wasn’t George W. Bush or the “man” bring me down.

Anyway, check it out, it’s a good read.