Posted on 05/03/2009 1:05:44 AM PDT by advance_copy
Republican political figures in recent days announced policy programs to challenge President Barack Obama's agenda and to counter perceptions that the GOP is a listless, leaderless "party of no."
In doing so, they're highlighting their differences with the Republican National Committee's political strategy.
House and Senate Republican lawmakers were the latest to launch a group independent of the RNC, announcing the formation of the National Council for a New America.
The group comprises potential GOP presidential candidates who plan town hall-style meetings to promote ideas different from Obama's. Their aides and allies have been vexed by the lack of comprehensive alternatives put forward by the national Republican leadership.
"One of the things that's constantly stated by the Obama administration spokesman is that the Republicans are the 'party of no,' and that the conservatives don't have ideas," said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, whose brother, President George W. Bush, many blame for the party's unpopularity. "But conservatives, in general, have not done a great job on putting forward their ideas."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Dubya even let the scumbag Democrat newsrooms blame him for a freaking natural disaster. ...And the weakling is still taking the blame!
All you can do is shake your head.
Have you ever heard the saying not to bring a knife to a gunfight?
It really doesn't matter how "big" the knife is...you're still going to lose.
WTF! it is everything above and LESS!
They are useless, no account and if not as corrupt as what passes for the dems these days, no spine, direction. The only one that even remotely has a plan is that idiot Specter who finally left the name Republican after 40 years of lies and BS, they are the party in absencia. The only thing that is going to save this country is it's people (of which I am not sure they want to be saved.
IMHO we get the government that we deserve, and folks we are screwed, blued and tattooed!
I don’t get it, can you explain that?
“Romney knew how to fight back. He showed how fierce he was in the primaries completely tearing down his opponents with in your face ads.”
What are you talking about the guy loses, he has been at this for almost 20 years and has pulled off one election and the people would not reelect him.
Watch him campaign and see if you like it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_w9pquznG4
Look, I’m not selling Romney. I am selling the concept of fighting back. George didn’t do it. Jeb has the opportunity.
She wins popularity contest
It’s a line that has clearly become a campaign talking point — repeated by staffers and supporters alike such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
In a press release responding to a story in the National Enquirer, the McCain campaign declared that “Governor Palin is the most popular governor in the country.”
It’s a line that has clearly become a campaign talking point — repeated by staffers and supporters alike such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
If the limit of your interest on this issue is whether it’s true that Palin is an extremely popular governor in Alaska, we’ll save you some time: the answer is an unqualified yes.
But we wanted to find out if she is the most popular, as the McCain campaign said. That’s a more complicated — and ultimately squishy — issue.
You won’t find a poll that on one day asked a large sample of residents in every state to rate their governor.
What you have is a hodgepodge of polls taken on different days in different states, often asking people different versions of whether they like their governor. For example, you might have one poll asking simply whether they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the governor; and another that asks you to rate the guv’s performance as excellent, good, fair or poor. It’d be unfair to compare those head-to-head.
And not to make your head hurt, but there’s a difference between personal approval ratings and job approval ratings. Bill Clinton, for example, had high job approval ratings but low personal approval ratings.
So what do we know about Palin’s approval ratings among Alaskans? They are remarkably high.
A May 2007 poll taken by Ivan Moore Research in Alaska put Palin’s positive rating at 89 percent. That’s off the charts high. But Moore’s survey wasn’t a traditional approval rating or job performance measure. Rather, respondents were asked to rate their feelings toward public figures as very or somewhat positive or very or somewhat negative. The verys and somewhats were then combined.
A poll two weeks before that one, from Dittman Research, gave Palin a 93 percent approval rating.
The Moore poll numbers hit a low of 76 percent in mid July — in the midst of “Troopergate” coverage — but bounced back to 80 percent in mid August. That mirrored a Hays Research Group poll on July 24 and 25 in which 80 percent rated Palin’s performance as somewhat or very favorable.
Moore hasn’t polled similar questions in other states, so he wouldn’t say categorically that Palin’s are the highest in the country. “But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know 89 percent is going to be at the top of the list,” Moore said.
On Sept. 3, the McCain campaign released results of an American Viewpoint poll on Sept. 2 — after the announcement of Palin as McCain’s running mate — that found Palin had an 86 percent overall job approval rating. That was a poll commissioned by the McCain campaign, so take that for what it’s worth.
Again, these are extraordinarily high numbers by any measure. But according to Rasmussen polls, Palin gave up her crown as “most popular” in July, overtaken by North Dakota’s Gov. John Hoeven.
A Rasmussen poll on July 30 found 64% of voters rate Palin’s job performance as excellent or good versus 14% who view it as poor. On July 8, Hoeven clocked 72 percent at excellent or good against just 6 percent who rated his performance as poor.
Scott Rasmussen, founder and CEO of Rasmussen Reports, said people shouldn’t get hung up on whether someone ranked No. 1 or 2. Those numbers change with the political winds of the day.
“In a broader sense, she (Palin) is one of the very top,” Rasmussen said.
The polling firm SurveyUSA has in the past conducted governor’s approval ratings in all 50 states, but not since Palin took office.
In 2006, the highest ratings were around 80 percent.
The ratings being reported in Alaska for Palin are “extraordinarily high,” said Jay Leve, editor of SurveyUSA. “Those kinds of numbers are unprecedented.”
And based on the previous highs for approval ratings, he said, it’s highly likely Palin is now top dog.
Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor for The Cook Political Report, and John McIntyre, managing editor at Real Clear Politics — two groups that pay close attention to such things — also believe Palin’s numbers rank her as the most popular.
“It’s difficult to make a categorical statement like that,” McIntyre said. “But generally, they are on pretty solid ground. If I was a betting person, I bet that’s an accurate statement. Once your approval rating is over 80 percent, it’s a little silly.”
Bottom line, most experts say the McCain campaign is probably right. We rate it True.
The last republican to gain significant ground on the democrats was Reagan.
Since him, all republicans have shown up to the policy fight with knives when they knew the democrats were going to draw a gun at the first hint of losing.
Frankly, I think the republicans “like” the way Washington works now. It’s the democrats that act like a party with a mission.
You lost your credibility when you tried to sell Romney.
So who wins all those elections such as the two term Republican that just left office?
Cripe! THe RINOs are rowing away madly with (just) the starboard oars again...
That's excellent.
“The last Republican to gain significant ground on the Democrats was Reagan.”
Reagan had Lee Atwater.
Nothing personal, Jeb...
Polls tell us one thing, and one thing only: how effective is the media at getting its message across.
If Katie Couric's editors were slaughtering your interview with malice and forethought, and leaving the best parts on the cutting room floor, you'd come out an idiot on TV, too.
Don't you remember the way the press showed every trip or stumble Gerald Ford made (after they blinded him with the lights on the mobile cameras)?
It is TV, the wonderful medium of impressions--impressions made by make-up artists, camera angles, background images, and editing.
Atwater was our Carville/Begala: Dukakis in the tank.
Assuming that Atwater didn’t show up until about 1984 how do you figure him into the Ronald Reagan movement of decades?
Just who do you think Ronald Reagan was? An extension or a result of Lee Atwater?
You are confusing election with success. Winning battles means nothing if you don't use that win to take enemy ground.
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