If midlandrepublican is an intellectual, good! There might be some reasonable areas where he has a more left leaning bent then some may prefer. We can discuss in a non-threatening way.

"I'm a Republican. I voted for McCain, Bush, Bush, Dole, Bush, Bush, Reagan, and Reagan. I'm just saying that I understand how so folks moving into Northern Michigan could support a Democrat over the local Republican. When I retire to Northern Michigan in May, I plan to start attending the GOP meetings at my place and will hopefully be a force for change within the party. As I said earlier, the only Republican elected official with a college degree in the party is the prosecutor. Call me an intellectual snob or whatever you want, but this is an issue for some people. I don't hunt, I prefer wine over beer, I drive a sedan and not a pick-up truck, and I wear chinos not jeans. It's a cultural thing, which is why the Republican Party is gaining more Joe the Plumbers and not enough Roberts the CEO."

Personally, I mostly agree with this. If I were Joe the Plumber I'd say, 'thanks for having the gonads to say it'.

OTOH, I'm very partial to J the P. I'm partial to Palin as well.  I've voted the same as our resident intellectual though. We're clearly on the same side, so far. Let us take some much needed criticism. He has touched on some areas that weigh heavy in my mind.

We should take a measured and patient approach and not insist all our little "plumber" eggs be put in one basket, all at one time no less. This 'all or nothing' approach has been a huge problem for us.

This patient approach extremely for the other side, I beg you to notice. It is brilliantly used by Communists.  These are people and groups with a plan.  They won't be thrown by making concessions and not getting their way, therefore cutting the nose to spite. They just go incremental. Why do we let others use what works? Does not even the Bible say, "precept by precept?" Go back, read his stuff again, take out what ya don't like, most will remain intact.

But 'Oh hell no' not us Joe's. A Joe will even vote for the 'other' guy just because he isn't getting his one or several pet issues.  Look, that isn't working!  It's in fact stupid. I say, keep the intellectual, he has some very good (ouch though) points.  Elsewhere, we can argue with him but treat him as a known allied force, we won't take these out with 'friendly fire'.