Lead, follow or get out of the way.  This is the message the National and the Illinois Republican Party leaders need to hear.  What about the Democrats?  It's obvious they can't lead and they won't follow, so we're going to get them out of the way. 

I'm tired of the National leadership - Michael Steele, Pete Sessions, John McCain, Lindsey "Igor" Graham, etc. - pushing candidates on the voters that we don't want.  Did they mess up in NY-23?  You bet they did.  The Conservative Party candidate, in reality a Republican and if elected plans on caucusing with the Republicans, is in a position to win the open house seat with the liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava set to finish last. 

I'm tired of the National leadership and the Illinois leadership pushing Mark Kirk, or as a friend called him - McKirk, on us here in the Land of Lincoln.  In my humble opinion, he's not much better than Scozzafava in NY-23.  He's no friend to the 2nd Amendment or the unborn, and voted for the "Hate" crimes bill and Cap and Tax.  Exactly what are his conservative credentials?  He says he voted against the Obama spending blitz and that as Senator, he would have voted against Cap and Tax.  Too little too late.

I'm hoping Club For Growth and others will get involved in the Illinois Senate race and help prevent a RINO from getting the Republican nomination for Senate.  Sad that these groups should have to get involved in Illinois but that pesky McCain-Feingold hogwash limits challengers' fundraising for a seat whereas an incumbent or a current elected official has an easier time and less restrictions on who and how much they can receive.  Another great legacy McCain has left us besides a dismal presidential run.

Back to the leadership though.  NY-23 should show the RNC and the Illinois GOP is that they need to seriously re-examine which candidates they are supporting and which direction the Republican Party should head in the future.  If John McCainestein and Igor Graham have their way, the GOP would become more liberal which basically concedes that the Democrats' ideology and policies are the new "norm" and that the GOP should just be a lesser version of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and President Obama.  Dr. McCainestien and Igor believe that the GOP should be Pelosi-lite with their policies.  Bully I say.

Normally, I pay little attention to polls released.  There seems to be a new poll everyday tracking this and that.  That being said though, I have noticed a trend across some polls that taken alone may not mean much, but put together they show something different.  That something different is what the leadership of both parties should take to heart.  The Democrats won't pay attention to it and they'll lose big in 2010 and hopefully 2012, but the GOP will miss the opportunity bus if they don't pay attention also.

Let's look at some of these polls.  First, the trend seems to be heading the Republican's way on who the voters trust on the issues.  Usually, the voters tend to trust the Republicans on issue of national security but an odd thing is happening on the way to the ballot box - the voters now see the GOP more trustworthy on all 10 "key electoral issues".  Yeah, I did a double take also.  Second, 60%+ of voters polled think the country is headed in the wrong direction - the same amount before Obama took office, so I would chance a guess that his "change" is not the change they were looking for?  I've always said that the results of the November election was an anti-Bush vote, not necessarily an Obama "change" vote.  The third poll shows more people identifying as conservative than those identifying as liberal or moderate.  

Our fourth poll shows that those that identify as conservative now out number liberal or moderate in all 50 states. 

What does this all mean?  Well, yet another poll answers this question.  73% of GOP voters say that our friends in Congress have lost touch with the base of the party.  In other words, as the poll states, only 15% of GOP primary voters believe that the Republicans in Congress are consistent with the party's values.  Not good.  This is what I alluded to at the beginning of this article.  The national and Illinois Republican Party had better wake up to what the people their voters want.  Finally, the party leadership needs to take heed to the conservative tea party movement.  If the regular GOP voters are angry, how do you think the tea partiers feel?  The tea partiers are conservative and fiercely independent.  According to other data in the Gallop poll that I sited earlier, even the coveted independent voters are turning toward the conservative way of thinking.

Finally, I saw one more poll by the Pew Research Center that has an interesting finding - Republicans are better informed about issues than Democrats.

So, not only do the polls show that the GOP leadership need to listen to their voters and some of the independent voters, but also at least one poll shows that we know what we are talking about!!!