Posted on 01/21/2009 12:56:27 PM PST by BGHater
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, installed Wednesday as the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), vowed to aggressively campaign in all 50 states and promised to rely on ideas and not ideology.
“The 50-state strategy is now and forever what Democrats do,” Kaine told DNC members at the party’s winter meeting in Washington, D.C. The plan to seek to compete in all states was put in place by Kaine’s successor, Howard Dean.
“The results speak for themselves. I’ll oversimplify: everybody matters. Every state, every region, every community matters,” Kaine said. However, he also warned Democrats to not simply trust that strategies that worked last year would also work in the future.
Dean had earlier defended the strategy in a valedictory speech before Kaine’s election as chairman.
“We cannot appear complacent,” Dean told party members. “We need to keep showing up, keep asking people for their vote, or we can lose their votes just as quickly as we gained them.”
Kaine set high expectations in the speech by repeatedly referencing the electoral successes enjoyed by the DNC under Dean, though he promised to continue the efforts credited with helping Democrats reclaim the presidency and both houses of Congress. Kaine said following Dean made him “nervous.”
The Virginia governor also argued that a less ideological approach would help the DNC continue its winning streak.
“Our elections in 2008 proved that Americans want leaders that are about solutions, not ideology,” he said. “We’re the problem solvers, not the ideologues ... In Virginia, our political success has been directly related to the success we’ve made in governance.”
Kaine sought to reach out to Hispanic voters in particular. He said, speaking in Spanish, that he learned important lessons while working as a young missionary in Honduras, and that the DNC would work to build strong relationships with the Hispanic community under his tenure.
Kaine was appointed by President Obama to succeed Dean at the DNC.
I am headed to Dallas Sunday for work!! Maybe I’ll turn Texan. We can make freedom’s last stand there.
Richard Nixon pursued a 50-state strategy in 1960, when he campaigned in every state. History tells us how well that worked.
“Now and Forever” sounds like a Muslim threat.
I’ll say that the GOP has to do the same about the 50 states. It will take a lot of planning and doing other things about the school system etc but this is what the GOP will have to do if its going to survive.
It won’t matter-open or closed-if the first primaries are held in liberal GOP states. We need to go to proportionate primaries...the Dems are right on this. I think Hillary could have been beaten...but the Dem primaries gave Obama the nod...who was pretty much unstoppable.
We have to fund the GOP also. I am tired of hearing how no one will contribute a dime...put your money where your mouth is...
Agreed - I would add Blacks as well. There are a lot of blacks I know who are very socially conservative. They just vote democrat because they always have. A lot of them are really uncomfortable with abortion and gay marriage.
That was sarcasm.
The problems for the GOP in Texas are not immediate but are rising.
The Democratic ticket not only won Travis County but also won Harris, Dallas, Bexar and El Paso counties, the state's largest.
More troubling than the GOP losing the gains of Hispanic votes that they had won in 2000 and 2004 is that suburban areas are trending Democrat. Without the Hispanic vote, the African American vote and the urban and suburban voters, within ten years, Texas will be lost for the Republicans.
Unfortunately, America needs to see what a Democrat president with a Democrat Congress means in fact.
The realization of what Democrats are all about is going to have to come out of the hides of the American public.
That is, unless the Republicn candidate sucks.
You are suggesting the we fight a Demographic Battle that we cannot win.
The coalition of African Americans, Hispanics and white Democrats will be tough to overcome.
Of the three groups, Hispanics would be the most productive to fracture. However, that will not be easy.
If the Dems believe they can dominate ideas in all 50 states demonstrates their arrogance. This sounds like a lot what the Clinton’s thought in 92’.
“I’ll oversimplify: everybody matters. Every state, every region, every community matters,”
I’ll oversimplify. Fight them. Everywhere.
“You mean the GOP that tried to outspend the Dems?”
We never outspent the Dems, not in budgets, not in campaigns, and not - it seems - in inaugurations ... and you’ll find out how big the difference really is, once the Dems pass their $2 trillion deficit, $4 TRILLION budget!
Crying is easier than actually doing something that may or may not have results ...
A lot of people on this board suggest the same as well. "Lets ignore the minority vote". "Lets not bother "...
I brought up the fact that the Hispanic vote went to Obama overwhelmingly this year, and I was called a RINO.
I pointed out that the Hispanics turned on the parts of the GOP because of their objection to the guest worker program... I was called a RINO.
So many wonderful political strategists around here ... /s
So by voting for the other candidate, they voted for someone who sucks less. I'm sure! /s
Whenever a Republican candidate sucks, lets vote for the opposite opponent ... even if they suck more ...
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, installed Wednesday as the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), vowed to aggressively campaign in all 50 states and promised to rely on ideas and not ideology.
It almost amazes me that one can chair the DNC (or the RNC) and have a supposed full-time job as a high elected officeholder at the same time. The GOP did likewise, IIRC, with Mel Martinez.
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