Posted on 05/03/2009 6:54:58 PM PDT by libh8er
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Saturday that it's time for the Republican Party to give up its "nostalgia" for the heyday of the Reagan era and look forward, even if it means stealing the winning strategy deployed by Democrats in the 2008 election.
"You can't beat something with nothing, and the other side has something. I don't like it, but they have it, and we have to be respectful and mindful of that," Mr. Bush said.
The former president's brother, often mentioned as a potential candidate in 2012, said President Obama's message of hope and change during the 2008 campaign clearly resonated with Americans.
"So our ideas need to be forward looking and relevant. I felt like there was a lot of nostalgia and the good old days in the [Republican] messaging. I mean, it's great, but it doesn't draw people toward your cause," Mr. Bush said.
"From the conservative side, it's time for us to listen first, to learn a little bit, to upgrade our message a little bit, to not be nostalgic about the past because, you know, things do ebb and flow."
The Florida governor joined former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor on Saturday at a small pizza parlor in Arlington for the inaugural event of the National Council for a New America (NCNA).
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I have a better idea...let’s leave the Bush family behind.
dfwgator to GOP: Time to leave the Bushes behind.
Yeah, I guess that one was pretty obvious.
And what strategy is that, empty "hope and change" promises?
He didn't diss Reagan and didn't diss conservative ideology. All he said is that we need to be better at framing argument better.
And the last time we reframed the argument, we called it Contract with America and we retook the congress.
Reagan's message was anti-hope and anti-change?
Does the GOP have something they would like to say to conservatives?
If they don’t want us they need to man up, come out and say it.
Ok, until the rats leave FDR behind. Oh, and stop mentioning JFK, plus show their true colors. Meaning, never.
10 thumbs up!
Just one more reason that being an independent is great.
What they had was nothing disguised as something - pure marketing. The GOP needs better marketing, yes, but it needs to back it up with some substance. If Jeb wants to emulate the democrats, does that include goon squads, illegal investigations, shadow puppetmasters and race baiting?
If that were the case, how come Obummer won with nothing but empty words and an empty suite then? Empty people with plenty of noise win over more substantive people all the time.
This doesnt look good! Notice he doesnt say what Reagan did wrong for today.
Bush Pere gave us Clinton, GWB gave us 0! Enuf said.
Hopefully, this year will have many closet (and not so closet ie spector) outing themselves in ways that will be remembered by the tea partiers... Jeb, Crist, Romney, Spector, Steele, et al. Keep ‘em comin’ boys and girls!
Lets Purge not Merge!
God I detest the Bush family and what they did to the USA.
Jeb is a big wimp like the first two; they won’t fight domestic adversaries or defend allies at home.
They are crappy leaders.
Hair-gel Romney is cut from the same sorry cloth. imo
“You can’t beat something with nothing, and the other side has something. I don’t like it, but they have it, and we have to be respectful and mindful of that,” Mr. Bush said.
::::::::::::
Well, I have a message for Mr. Bush. You can take your “compassionate conservatism” and sit on it. You can take your RINO-ism and sit on that too. And you can take all your liberal and socialistic traits and sit on those too.
History WILL REPEAT ITSELF. And conservative Repubs win, when they RUN ON CONSERVATISM -— and I think they will have gotten their fill of Emperor Obama and his socialism and radical liberalism by time to pick another president, and hopefully by the midterms.
Bye, bye Bush. No more One World, utopian, border-bashing, Read-My-Lips Bush elitists. No thank you. Conservative America is NOT leaving Reagan behind, but praying for another one that will restore our Constitutional Republic and our freedoms, and our great nation in general. It will be badly bruised when it is time.
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