But this can’t involve throwing bricks. Some on the right may need to be reminded of basic facts: Obama soon will be president, and the office commands respect.

In the next 4 years, MSNBC’s (GE) Keith Olbermann will be conservatism’s greatest friend, and Fox’s Bill O’Reilly has the potential to do the cause great harm.

Once a knockout sports reporter, Olbermann is adrift in politics. He confuses venom with analysis, and apparently believes his opinion is important because he utters it. His over-the-top comments are vacuous thigh-slappers when they’re not mere head-scratchers. Olbermann will help the conservative press by underscoring the worst of the liberal mindset: Pomposity, condescension and syntax split asunder.

Luckily, Olbermann’s contract has been extended through 2012 - so he’ll be around for the next presidential election, though he won't be voting in it.

Bill O’Reilly, the insufferable Fox gasbag who presides over cable’s highest-rated news program, lacks the venom, but makes up for it with huge doses of pure ego. O’Reilly’s program is about O’Reilly, and his guests are almost incidental. He goes on terrible rants about this or that, and is often inconsistent or simply incomprehensible. No one should confuse O’Reilly with conservatism.

But O’Reilly will play an important part in the conservative renaissance because, thanks to his high ratings, liberals will focus on his unending blather and miss the intense debate carried on by lesser-known but infinitely brighter conservatives, starting with the bloggers at HotAir, Powerline, TownHall, LittleGreenFootballs, TigerHawk, The Volohk Conspiracy, RightWingNuthouse and AmericanThinker. FreeRepublic counterpoints elite opinion. Instapundit will remain invaluable.

Reagan once said, “Government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem.” In a poll conducted October 2nd, Rasmussen found that 59% agreed with Reagan, while 28% disagreed.

Conservatives should note that 44% of Obama’s voters agreed with the Gipper, suggesting many are open to the conservative media’s pitch.

But there will be no immediate miracles. It was 16 years between Barry Goldwater’s crushing defeat in 1964 and Ronald Reagan’s resounding victory in 1980. The conservative press needs to spark a lively discussion in and out of conservative circles about the scope and reach of government.

Conservatives can’t talk just to themselves - because cocooning is death.