Michael Leahy

What George W. Bush Could Learn From Joseph Schumpeter

By Michael Patrick Leahy | 12/13/08

I once thought George W. Bush was a conservative. Most Democrats thought he was anything but an intellectual. Turns out we were both wrong, at least if you subscribe to economist Joseph Schumpeter's concepts of "creative destruction" and the long term movement of capitalistic free markets societies to "corporatism" and socialism. Here's what our friends at Wikipedia have to say about Mr. Schumpeter's views. The expression "creative... read more »

Rediscovering Self-Interest Rightly Understood

By Michael Patrick Leahy | 12/13/08

French writer and observer of America Alexis de Toqueville wrote a chapter in his famous work, Democracy in America, published in the 1830's, titled How the Americans Combat Individualism by the Principle of Self-interest Rightly Understood A couple paragraphs from that chapter: When the world was managed by a few rich and powerful individuals, these persons loved to entertain a lofty idea of the duties of man. They were fond of professing that... read more »

Tim McGraw Wants to be Governor of Tennessee?

By Michael Patrick Leahy | 12/13/08

I saw a few reports in the blogosphere yesterday that country music star Tim McGraw may have an interest in running for Governor of Tennessee in 2010. It's hard to tell if these reports are genuine at the moment, or whether they are just the product of some creative PR flack's over active mind. The first question that comes to mind, of course, if there is any merit to these reports, is this: What kind of qualifications does Mr. McGraw have for... read more »

Ford Motor's Head of Social Media Pioneers Public Dialogue with Conservative Grass Roots Movement

By Michael Patrick Leahy | 12/12/08

In my role as co-founder of Top Conservatives on Twitter, the Twitter based grass roots organization of conservatives dedicated to action projects that will return conservative Republicans to a majority in Congress in 2010, I was on one end of a fascinating two way public conversation that caused a bit of a stir in the blogosphere yesterday. We had just completed one phase of Operation Fight The Bailout (our 1,200 plus members sent a thundering... read more »

Grindstaff's Innovative Proposal

By Michael Patrick Leahy | 12/11/08

Doug Grindstaff, the chairman of the Williamson County Republican Party, is a man of both ideas and action. His leadership of the county party, and his willingness to help Republican legislative candidates around the state of Tennessee is one reason the Republicans now have a 50-49 majority in the next legislative session of the State House of Representatives. In a recent column in the Williamson County Herald, Grindstaff set forward an... read more »

Tennessee's GOP Chairman Shows New Media Leadership

By Michael Patrick Leahy | 12/04/08

The leadership of the Republican party may be filled with many people who don't "get" the importance of using the new technologies, but that problem doesn't apply to the Republican Party in Tennessee. Twitter, the new social media tool, has become an increasingly popular method of grass roots organization within the Republican Party. Several of the new generation of internet activists on the conservative side of the aisle have begun to use... read more »

Tennessee Republicans Name RINO as Candidate for Speaker Pro Tem

By Michael Patrick Leahy | 12/02/08

Nashville based conservative talk show powerhouse Steve Gill is at it again. Gill reports this morning that the fifty members of the Republican caucus in the Tennessee State House of Representatives have selected Republican in name only Representative Steve McDaniel to be their candidate for the second most powerful position in the House of Representatives--Speaker Pro Tem. The selection apparently comes with the blessing of incoming Speaker... read more »

There's a New Sheriff in Town

By Michael Patrick Leahy | 11/28/08

The one hundred and sixty thousand residents of Williamson County breathed a giant sigh of relief on September 1 of this year when Jeff Long was sworn in as the new Sheriff of Williamson County. Long's assumption of the office ended a two year long odyssey of scandal, disgrace, and tragedy that can only be described as a Shakespearean Film Noir set to Country Music. In January of 2007,then Williamson County Sheriff Ricky Headley, the... read more »

Tennessee's Saltsman Launches Bid for RNC Chair

By Michael Patrick Leahy | 11/27/08

Tennessean Chip Saltsman, most recently the manager of Mike Huckabee's remarkably successful "up from nowhere" 2008 Presidential campaign, has thrown his hat in the ring as a candidate for the Republican National Committee Chairmanship position.   At forty, Saltsman is the youngest of the announced candidates and arguably has the most electoral success in his background. He helped the ignoble Don Sundquist win the Governorship in Tennessee... read more »

Governor Bredesen's Early and Unwanted Thanksgiving Turkey

By Michael Patrick Leahy | 11/26/08

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, halfway through his second and last four year term, suffered an embarassing set back earlier this week at the hands of his own Democrat party.The surprising loss of both houses of the State Legislature to the Republicans set up a little drama which gave Bredesen an early and unwanted Thanksgiving turkey, in the form of a vote for Minority Leader in the State House of Representatives that didn't go his way.... read more »