Why The Democratics Candidates Won't Win the Conservative Democrat Vote

Michelle Malkin details the responses of two Democratic presidential candidates to a question about gun control.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was asked to respond first. CNN host Anderson Cooper noted that Richardson has "one of the highest NRA ratings." Richardson ran so fast from his record, you could see the Road Runner puff of cartoon smoke billowing at the base of his podium.

Richardson babbled on about background checks and mentally ill buyers and blah, blah, blah. Moderator Anderson Cooper took pity on Richardson and moved to another candidate. Based solely on his background, Richardson should be wiping the floor with this crop of candidates, but he isn't and his performance in the "YouTube" debate is why.

But it was Joe Biden who lent the perfect frame to why the Democrats will never win in a state like West Virginia, a normally Democratic bastion. Quick background though. The questioner was one Jared Townsend from Michigan, who introduced his Bushmaster AR-15 as his "baby" and wondered what the candidates would do to protect his baby.

Biden's first line:

"I'll tell you what, if that is his baby, he needs help."

Biden threw red meat to the blue audience. He was richly rewarded with loud applause. Biden showed off his lawyerly credentials and continued to wallop the YouTube gun owner: "I think he just made an admission against self-interest. I don't know that he is mentally qualified to own that gun." Why? Because he showed affection for his possession? Because he's an enthusiastic hobbyist? Because he talked about his gun the way Paris Hilton talks about her Chihuahua or Brad Pitt talks about his Ducati or Al Gore talks about his Priuses and compact fluorescent light bulbs?

The absolute disdain for gun ownership among law abiding citizens is just proof that the current crop of liberal candidates is so completely out of touch with not only the American people, but with American history.

But it is completely in line with their vision of the world, a world in which the government controls all and liberty is reduced for everyone. The Framers knew that private gun ownership was not just a matter of self-defense against Indians or wild animals. Private gun ownership was about the survival of the nation, the fact that guns in the hands of individual citizens put a check on the power of the government in their lives. In the liberal world, only police and the military would have guns and the fewer of those the better.

While Joe Biden has zero chance of becoming President, the fact that front-runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama said and did nothing to assuage Jared Townsend's concerns, Townsend and those like him have much to fear from a Democratic administration.