By Gary P Jackson
Leadership. It’s an ability you either have, or you don’t.
Clint Didier is a born leader. A lifelong farmer, Clint was drafted into the National Football League out of Portland State University by the Washington Redskins, where he spent seven seasons and played in three Super Bowls. He would go on to play for the Green Bay Packers for two more seasons.
When Clint retired in 1990 he bought a farm close to the original family farm in Eastern Washington. He also owns a successful excavation business. Both of these are tough businesses that require strong, bold leadership to survive. But that’s not all Clint has done.
Clint also devoted nine years to coaching the Connell High School football program. Under Clint’s strong leadership, the team won two state championships and was second twice.
Ronald Reagan used to talk about leadership. Reagan said "Raise the banner of bold colors, not pale pastels." What he meant was we need strong leadership with big ideas. Bold ideas. Just as it was in 1975 when Reagan first made that speech, now is the time for bold leaders, not the timid.
The reason I write today is to talk about the differences between the two front running candidates for the Republican nomination in Washington state: Clint Didier and Dino Rossi.
On paper these two gentlemen may appear similar. Both are billed as Conservatives. To be honest, Rossi had a decent record during his two terms as a state Senator and before leaving the Senate to run for Governor, was chair of the Ways and Means Committee. But when you start looking at the issues, and the way both men approach them, you start seeing some stunning differences.
The best way to put it is this: Clint Didier is a plain spoken, no nonsense guy who tells you what he thinks. He doesn’t do nuance. No doubt, this is one of the reasons Sarah Palin endorsed him. She doesn’t do nuance either. You check him out on the issues and there isn’t a lot of grey area to drift around in. Check Clint out on the issues here.
Bold, decisive, no nonsense.
Now at first glance, Dino Rossi seems to be on the same page. But if you really look where Rossi is, you see some differences. Strong differences.
Let’s take Health Care for example. Specifically, ObamaCare. Clint Didier just says, point blank, it’s unconstitutional. The government has no right and no business fooling around with health care. Not their job. No where in the Constitution does it give Congress the authority to do what it’s done. Plain, simple and correct.
On the other hand, Rossi is a tad more timid, nuanced, and vague. Oh, he has the right idea and points out all of the things wrong with ObamaCare, and talks about the backroom deals and how this is only going to destroy health care in America. On his website, his official position is this:
Replace Pelosi-Reid healthcare bill with something that will actually lower health insurance costs , improve access to a greater variety of health insurance plans, and give people choice in picking their doctors .
Sounds great. Where do I sign up?
The problem is, on the very same page, right above it, he also says this:
We need to repeal the parts of this bill which hurt access to and coverage for quality affordable health care, and replace it with common - sense bipartisan proposals.
Two problems here. Obviously the first part is where he says "We need to repeal the parts ..."
Repeal PARTS?
Really?
That sure sounds a whole lot like Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski’s nuanced position that ObamaCare is a "work in progress." She was also talking about repealing ObamaCare at one point, but has gotten quite soft on the issue, as we pointed out here.
It’s a tad concerning that Rossi isn’t even in office yet and we aren’t sure where he is on this deal. I can’t hammer him for being a Big Government Statist like Murkowski, but this is certainly a squishy establishment Republican kind of position.
My second problem here is it seems that Rossi is more concerned about developing a bi-partisan plan, than a good one. Or at the least, just as concerned about it. Bi-partisanship is a fine thing IN THEORY, but if we have leaned anything at all since the Marxist-democrats took control of Congress almost 4 years ago, and especially since the Obama regime came to power, to the Marxist-democrats, bi-partisanship means you do it their way, or else.
We’ve already seen the damage the reach-across-the aisle crowd is capable of. They are way too timid, and way too quick to compromise just to get a deal, any deal.They are little more than enablers to Marxist radicals who are destroying our Republic.
We got enough milquetoast, squishes on our side. The Marxist-democrats are ruthless and never give an inch on anything, and never compromise on their evil plans for the country. We shouldn’t compromise on plans to take our nation back! We need to get back to being the Constitutional Republic the founders created.
I will say this, Dino Rossi was successful as a reach-across-the-aisle-er in the State Senate, but that ain’t D.C.! George W. Bush was incredibly successful as the Governor of Texas at working with hard core democrats to get real things done. However, at that point in time there were few Marxists in the Texas democrat party. Once Bush became President, he went out of his way to reach out to the Marxist-democrats. Basically let Teddy Kennedy write the education bill. We all know how the Marxists thanked him.
As troubling as it is to know that we don’t exactly know what Rossi’s stance on Health care is, it’s even more troubling to think that Rossi may not realize that we are at a state of war with the radical left, for the soul of the nation and the survival of the Republic. .
Energy is another area where it’s easy to see why Sarah Palin speaks so well of Clint. These two are simpatico. Clint embraces the idea of "Drill baby, drill" and why not. We have an estimated 300 years of recoverable oil, and that’s if we don’t import a drop.
Like Sarah, Clint ties energy independence into national security. Over the coming decades, as China and Russia grow, this will be our number one national security issue. Clint recognizes we need to reel in the out of control EPA, and the environmental extremists, that do more harm than good, and start building some refineries as well.
Clint does talk about some renewable energy , but he puts a huge emphasis on nuclear power. Not only would the construction phase of both refineries and nuclear power plants create good, well paying jobs, and a lot of them, so would the finished facilities. Good, sustainable jobs.
We are never going to see a time where we don’t need energy. Our only question is do we do it for ourselves, or rely on other nations, and hope they don’t decided at some point to either stop supplying it to us, or make it so expensive we can’t afford it.
France gets over 75 percent of it’s electricity from nuclear powered plants. FRANCE. If they can do it, we can do it, and do it better.
Rossi is a little more timid, and a lot more vague on energy. While he seems to be against cap and tax, a good thing, the rest of his positions tend to be less than ideal.
His plan relies a lot on "alternative energy" sources, and a steadily increasing reliance on them. The problem is, as we point out here, people have been throwing money down the bottomless pit of "alternative energy" for over a half century, and overall, we are using LESS alternative energy, not more.
The problem is, none of the alternatives really work, and even the ones that marginally do, can only survive with massive government subsidies. Not a good plan when times are booming, and times are definitely not booming!
Though he doesn’t come right out and say it, as you read his positions on energy, you can see he’s trying to court both reality based Conservatives, and the flat earth society greens who believe in nonsense like global warming.
You can check out all of Dino Rossi’s postions on the issues here. He’s not horrible, but the lack of bold, authoritative answers leave a lot to be desired. In short, there’s a better, bolder, stronger candidate.
Another example of Rossi’s timidity is shown in the video below. Here he and Clint are debating what to do with the Fed:
As you can tell, while Rossi is trying to get the answer right. Clint is bold, and decisive. Didn’t have to search for the nuanced answer.
If you’ve not seen this speech from the Washington State Republican Convention, watch it and you’ll see why we are impressed.
Bold and dynamic. Clint Didier reminds me a lot of another great patriot, Lt Col. Allen West, someone else who isn’t shy about speaking his mind!
There are more concerns I have with Dino Rossi. These not only call into question his timidity, but his ability to close the deal. Rossi was late getting into the race, even though many thought he was the guy to run. Instead of jumping in, especially with his decent base of support, he waited until others came, and went. It was almost like he was waiting to see who his competition was before he committed. Reminds us of another noted profile in courage.
There is also the real question of elect-ability. Though Rossi was able to win on his second and third try for the State Senate, he’s not won at the statewide level. He has run for Governor twice.
Now in all fairness, he did actually win the 2004 election. This ended up being one of those famed Perkins Coie specials, where the Marxist-democrat law firm was able to manufacture enough votes (129) after Rossi was certified the winner, to overturn the election and steal the victory away. One can form their own thoughts about allowing someone to steal a victory this way, especially when it was this close, and the chicanery was so obvious.
Even though it was an obvious ripoff, four years later, in a rematch, Marxist-democrat Christine Gregoire beat Rossi 53 to 46 percent. Gregoire is one of the worst Governors in the nation and has destroyed the state, and yet ....
The bottom line is this. If we are to take back Congress, stop Obama from doing any more damage to our nation, and ultimately repair all of the destruction four years of the Marxist-democrat control of Congress, as well as Obama’s horrific agenda has done, we need bold leadership.
We need someone who isn’t afraid to grab the bull by the horns and take on any and all threats to Liberty and Freedom. We need someone who will work with everyone when it’s in the pursuit of improving our nation, but will stand up to those who would further usurp our Constitution, and oppress the people of this nation even more.
We need someone who will say enough is enough, and actually shrink government, not grow it. Someone who will fight for Liberty and Freedom every day he is on the job. Someone who believes in Common Sense Conservatism, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law. Someone who doesn’t feel the need to nuance or "moderate" his positions. We’ve had plenty of them in D.C. and they have been an absolute disaster. No need to send another one.
I submit that Clint Didier, farmer, businessman, championship football player and coach, and bold leader, is that man.
Currently Clint is doing battle to win the August primary.
Clint needs your help. Go to his website www.clintdider.org and donate, volunteer, help any way you can. You can check out his two Facebook pages here and here, and follow Clint on Twitter here.
Clint Didier is the bold aggressive leader we need to help clean up Congress. Let’s all make sure he gets there to do it!
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