Posted on 12/01/2013 6:01:24 AM PST by SkyPilot
A Republican strategist is reminding his party that President Reagan is dead.
ADVERTISEMENT Ford O'Connell, who worked on Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) 2008 presidential campaign, says if Republicans want to win the White House in 2016, they need to break free of the "obsessive Reagan disorder."
Rule #1 of the political analyst's newly released book, "Hail Mary: The 10-Step Playbook for Republican Recovery," is: "Ronald Reagan is dead. Accept it."
Such a sentiment is sure to be tough to digest for a party insistent on using the 40th president's legacy as a GOP litmus test to prove conservative credentials.
"The Reagan fixation is a drag on the future success of the GOP at the national level. It undermines the candidates because it becomes a crutch for their inability to articulate an actual agenda or a forward-looking vision," he writes.
In an interview with The Hill, O'Connell says he combines his "two loves: politics and football" into his work “Hail Mary,” a sort-of political manual for presidential hopefuls.
The native Texan contends that he is "not pushing a personal agenda" in his blunt "playbook."
He says it is aimed squarely at the 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls, whom he handicaps in a chapter entitled “2016 Republican Presidential Scouting Report."
"This was an honest attempt to say, 'Hey, if you want to win the White House, you've got to understand the obstacles and what it's going to take to get 270 electoral votes, regardless of who the nominee is," O'Connell explains.
The book is geared toward political success at the national level, not the 2014 midterm congressional elections, a point he makes in Rule #9 "The Preseason Doesn't Win You the Super Bowl."
O'Connell says that Republicans failed to capitalize on the 2010 midterm election success when the GOP regained control...
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
If Republicans don’t stand for fiscal conservatism, what do they stand for? They might as well be Democrats. Then we’ll have a one-party nation, which will make Obama very happy.
I’ve never heard of this idiot and I’m happy to keep it that way.
Thanks for the ping.
Figures. The loooser.
[And apparently the GOPe wants the party to die with him.]
I agree, and would like to do what I can to get the GOPe out of the driver’s seat. How do we do that? And another thing, who are they besides Rove, Norquist, McCain and Boehner?
So are Marx, Stalin and Mao...but the left ain't movin' on!
So is Rockefeller.
So....you’d all rather have another woman like the fake Native American from Massachusetts? Or another one like Harry Reid? They are not the same. Like him or not, he’s far better than those types. So cheer for a winnable candidate to beat Mitch. In fine with that, but if he or she is a loon candidate that will lose to a Harry Reid democrat, I completely disagree. That guy and his ilk are why we’re in this mess.
You’re lucky to hand Andy Harris there in Maryland. He’s a good man.
I agree. Reagan is dead. We do need new leaders. We need men who are more hardcore Constitutionalist, more liberty loving, more patriotic, more anti-government than Reagan was. We need men that will make Reagan look like a rabid Bolshevik.
Yep and the GOPe got a second helping of return on THEIR strategery in 2012.
I agree. The message MUST be sent to McConnell and his lackeys.
While the American people would vote down Reagan if he were available in 2016, advice from a McPainiac is likely flawed from the start. It shows how poorly AZ people make their choices.
The problem we have are the Republican primary voters of KY. They are “low-information” types who vote for familiar names.
After all the TEA Party Hate from him lately, a show of lack of support would send a strong message (plus get that retard who never wanted to use the filibuster out of the way) to the others.
Listen,taxachuessets is so screwed with libs that there is no saving that place.The lesser of two evils is still evil.
Again, I can see voting for the republican opponent in the primary as long as he or she can beat the dem.....but if that person loses to a lib like Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, McCaskill in Missouri, Joe Donnelly in Indiana...and on and on, I'm not at all in favor. Holding your nose to vote for someone clearly less liberal, but not perfect isn't my favorite thing to do, but it sure is better than any of those above.
Where have you been? They already did that by raising the debt ceiling(Its got to be paid back)and little mitch got the dam didn’t he? The problem is mitch just goes along with the demorat program just as crybaby did on obummerscare. They could have just defunded the whole affair but caved like the demorats they truly are.I don’t think you see that the problem is they consider themselves the elite and will screw us one and all.How can you vote for somebody that will stab you in the back?Screw me once shame on you screw me again and shame on me.I have learned that lesson well.Never again.
Reagan was a fluke, unfortunately.
So screw you once, shame on them, screw you twice, shame on you and screw you even more by assuring another democrat gets elected? That’s nuts. The budget deal wasn’t great, but do you seriously think allowing another democrat to be added to the senate will help? Totally illogical and foolish
Whatever you say.
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