The Hope And Change The DEMOCRATS Had In Mind Was Nothing More Than A Retread Of The FAILED And Discredited Socialist Policies That Have Been The Enemy Of Freedom For Centuries All Over The World. I FEAR America Is Teetering TOWARDS TYRANNY.

If You're SELLING T-shirts As A Heel - You're Selling Them - Then You've FAILED Miserably.

If The World Is TELLING You You're SUCCESSFUL, But You Don't Feel It, You MIGHT As WELL Have Failed.

We All FAIL - I Have FAILED So MANY Times, But It Never Discourages Me. I Just PICK Up And Go.

If I Don't Cry While Writing A KEY Emotional Scene, My GUT FEELING Is It's Failed.

My Mother Was Catholic, My Father Not. I Went To Catholic High School. Every FORM Of EDUCATION FAILED Me. I Was TROUBLE.

Throughout My Teenage YEARS, I READ 'A Christmas Carol' By Charles Dickens Every December. It Was A Story That NEVER Failed To Excite Me, For As Well As Being A Dickens Enthusiast, I Have Always LOVED Ghost Stories.

My FIRST Company Failed Completely. And It Failed At About Ten Months Old. I Had About 12 Months Of Savings, So When It Failed I Was THINKING: 'Do I Go Back To Work?' And At That Point I Believed So Deeply In What I Was Doing That I Couldn't Imagine Anything ELSE Other Than Trying To MAKE This Business Work.

Now, I'm A Failed Political Consultant. But SOMETIMES FICTION Has A Way Of Capturing People's IMAGINATION In A Way That Non-fiction Doesn't. Conservatives Typically Haven't Written Much Fiction - Specifically Political Thrillers - Over The Years To EDUCATE, Inspire And Mobilize People On Issues Of Great Import, But We Ought To.

I'd Always Admired The INTELLECTUALS Who Had MADE The Transition Into Politics - Mario Vargas Llosa In PERU, Vaclav Havel In The Czech Republic, Carlos Fuentes In Mexico - But I KNEW That Many Of Them Had FAILED, And In Any Event, I Wasn't Exactly In Their League.