The Tactical Disadvantage Facing Conservatives

Thisx story in the Washington Post highlights what may be one of the biggest tactical problems facing conservatives these days.

When critics lashed out at President Obama for scheduling a speech to public school students this month, accusing him of wanting to indoctrinate children to his politics, his advisers quickly scrubbed his planned comments for potentially problematic wording. They then reached out to progressive Web sites such as the Huffington Post, liberal bloggers and Democratic pundits to make their case to a friendly audience.

The controversy escalated, but by the time it was over, White House advisers thought they had emerged with the upper hand. The speech, they said, was the most-viewed live video on any government Web site in history, and they were pleased with the media coverage of the event.

The Obama administration can think more than one move ahead right now. It's one of the benefits of being the party in power, as well as having a friendly media at your disposal.

Conservatives, on the other hand, are in a power vacuum at the moment. Sure, we have people in leadership positions, but no one person (or even one team) that most conservatives view as "our leader". Coordinating conservatives is almost as difficult as getting Kanye West to take a vow of silence, even in the best of times... and these are not the best of times.

As long as the conservative movement is rudderless, we're not going to get anywhere. Sure, we may make a lot of noise, and even send a lot of people to Washington, D.C. for a passionate protest against... what? Less spending? Less gun control? More freedom? Less immigration? More morality? A return to the free market? We can't even agree on what we're protesting these days.

The march in Washington was sound and fury signifying something, but until there's some coherence and cohesion in the movement, we're going to be lashing out instinctually while our opponents are able to act tactically.