Posted on 11/13/2012 1:08:15 PM PST by Sir Napsalot
(snip) Many Republicans figured that the economic malaise and the lack of any vision of a second term from Obama would doom him with voters, but we ended up getting stuck in our own blind spot where Obama is concerned.
As I wrote after the election, we can’t allow ourselves to fall into the trap of being mainly an oppositional party — being defined by what we’re against rather than what we’re for. We have to have a clear, positive agenda aimed at communicating specific policies that will improve the lives of voters in demonstrable ways. Too often, we offer philosophical slogans about economic policies without offering nuts-and-bolts solutions to back them up. That requires going into hostile political ground — especially in urban areas, where we fare the worst in national elections — and offer specific free-market-based policies to solve real problems for people whom Democrats can take for granted now. That is the most direct route to defusing the claim that the GOP is nothing but the party of the rich.
.... We need candidates who can communicate better and make sure that campaigns remain focused on those core values and specific policy agendas that will improve the lives of all voters.
If the Republican Party is to have a renaissance, it will have to be led by Jindal and the other Republicans of his rank in the next few years. Hopefully, the message will resonate within the party.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
Fundamentally, Romney suffered from being a liberal who early on tried to masquerade as a severe conservative and then later as a moderate. He came across as inauthentic. Romney probably doesn't really believe in anything other than his own career.
In terms of substance, many people understood him to be saying that we should fix the debt problem by lowering tax rates and increasing spending (on defense). I understand that he said he intended to make up for lower tax rates by reducing tax deductions, but no one ever understood what deductions he had in mind because he thought that information wouldn't matter much to anyone. As a result, the substance of his plan seemed like a lot of baloney to a lot of people. He promised to get rid of Obamacare, but he threatened to replace it with his own plan (Romneycare). He promised to lower spending on Medicare, but not until ten years from now! His whole program seemed like something his crack campaign staff put together on the back of an envelope.
All in all, I think Romney presented himself as just another ambitious politician who wasn't looking for ideas to really turn this country around, but was instead just trying to figure out what 50.1% of likely voters might like to hear. Romney is no Reagan and people saw through him.
But I thought once he cinched the nomination, he ran much better than McCain. Esp. his debate performance, I thought he swayed quite a lot minds.
I absolutely agree with you, there is no way GOP could lose. From election day citizen journalists reporting, enthusiasm was high, I couldn't believe Romney had less voter counts (I still don't believe the voter counts, call me a conspiracy-whatever-ist) than 2008. I think Obama bought and stole the election outright.
Anyway, all these post-election finger pointing and self-recrimination were based on the assumption that more voted for Obama than Romney.
For all you non-Louisianians, understand this. Jindal is the biggest RINO of the bunch. He’s got a gift for speaking but he’s a democrat in wolf’s clothing.
This Louisianian agrees with you. Jindal’s first loyalty is to Jindal and I campaigned for him twice, the first time when he lost to MeeMaw Blank-O and the second time when he won in 07.
Sorry I have to say it but Jindal has been a disappointment.
He ran like a conservative but has governed like a RINO.
Yeah, tell that to all those newly minted illegal aliens already here and also the ones who are going to pour over the open border when amnesty happens.
Liberty to most of them will be free stuff.
That is an attack on free market capitalism!
Socialists (like you, obviously) scream in their best class warfare dialect - "Tax the rich!" despite the fact the "rich" pay far more of the "fair share" in the progressive tax rate structure.
Another GOP sissy on parade!
Today's conservatives have the right message but they cannot overcome the media handicap. Time for Adelson, the Kochs, Trump, etc. to get serious about funding new outlets, or buying old ones.
Will file these two tidbits away.
Mostly I want to have something to say against what Ed (Hot Air) said.
I didn’t see anything about “taxing the rich” in that, but okay.
I interpreted it more as a statement about reforming the party’s image so it’s not falsely perceived as the banker party.
.... We need candidates who can communicate better and make sure that campaigns remain focused on those core values and specific policy agendas that will improve the lives of all voters.
**
Dream on! Really? Why are so many of these pundits so blind to the fact that the paradigm has shifted entirely? They need to understand that the progressives/Marxists have completely taken over the system now. There will never again be a fair national election in my life time, as they are in total control of the process.
By 2016, as we are fully immersed in a third world milieu, the votes of conservatives, the voices of conservatives will be counted as nothing.
Crying as I type this, as I am mourning the death of our republic. I am a Boomer, so I do not mourn for my own sake but for my children and for my grandchildren. As one of my older sisters told me, we got to live in the best part of it. My dear grandsons will never know the true taste of liberty. We let it slip away not with a bang but with a whimper.
Mark Levin just made the same point I did re: Jindal.
Class Warfare by pseaudo-Conservatives!
Mark Levin just made the same point I did re: Jindal.
Class Warfare by pseudo-Conservatives!
Something tells me a Louisiana RINO is a far cry from a New York RINO, though ...
Oh, okay. Well clearly you are right and I am stupendously wrong. Congrats.
And now Jindal jumps on the “let us become more like the Dems” bandwagon too.
Why don’t all these spineless cowards just become Dems and get it over with?
You are correct. Two years ago I was in NOLA on a job and had to deal with several state agencies. Russian commie bureaucrats were more competent.
If, as governor, he can’t get his own tax collecting agencies to even ANSWER the damn phone, then he’s not doing his job. I know it’s the “big easy” but I got so frustrated I left a voice message saying, “okay, if you don’t want the taxes we owe you, come get them”.
Never got a return call.
Yes. Yes you are.
Funny I read somewhere, to get the fire back republicans have to be more Jack Kemp and go into the Democratic lions den and convert the voters.
I spent my entire adult life in the inner ghettos in Philly, mostly North Philly sometimes West Philly.
Those areas can not be saved. Where do you think flash mobs came from and the knockout game.
Black Panthers and other black militants will run you out, trust me I lived it there.
I wish I could properly explain but it is by far a different world.
Yep. The idea that all that matters is the elite’s place in the economy and the GOP should ditch social conservatives, the middle class’ economic interests and the culture war is stupid and lackluster.
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