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 ...
According to the article, numnuts wrote his book using football as a metaphor... then titled it “hail mary”, a reference to a last ditch, desperation play used when you are behind in the final seconds and have no other options for victory because you played a losing game up until that point. Sometimes it works, but most of the time it doesn’t.
Sounds about right for someone who worked on the McCain campaign.
I don't know how these people become GOP consultants. The overwhelming evidence of the 2010 elections was that if you run as the party of Reagan you will win. Palin, not this jerk, was the driving force of the 2010 victories. Dole, McCain, Romney, and now Fatso - lesson not learned.
FDR is dead — but the ‘Rats keep doubling down on FDR’s misdeeds.
I’d like to write the appendix to this book. I’d call it “It’s Stupid To Punt On First Down.”
The man who ran John McCains losing campaign is telling us how to lose another one.
I would rather have one more Democrat Senator than Mitch McConnell as Minority leader.
Republicans will get over Reagan as soon as the Democrats get over JFK.
I dunno. Science has come a long way.
A GOP strategist who worked on McLame’s FAILED GOP Stalking Horse White House Run in 2008.
In the run up to that election, Insane McLame was trumpeting from the ramparts that he was a “Reagan Conservative” from the beginning.
Horseshit. The only thing he did right was pick Sarah, and I’ll bet it was because he only liked her looks.
“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.”
If Ford knows what it takes to win the white house, then why didnt mccain win?
Yeah, lets take advice from this loser.
Ahh another GOPe douche loser telling me what to think. How’s that working for you sparky?
Yep - his stratergy and record really puts some authority behind his new stratergy...
We regulars notice more.
Why would I want a repub to be president ? Bush was terrible. I want a America first or conservative.
Yes, it's a cyclic thing. You can set your watch by it.
All you have to do is read my tag line to explain it all.
If the GOP doesn’t run a conservative I just won’t vote for him.
They really don’t want to win.
Oh well!
Step 11. Nobody cares, Ford.
Step 12. No, seriously. You had so much the better ticket even then, and even more so now, that it’s not even funny. And you lost. Nobody you’re supposedly aiming this toward wants to hear anything more complicated from you than “Would you like fries with that?”
I agree... and Thank you!
What lives on are IDEAS that some are brave enough and eloquent enough to express. IDEAS of LIBERTY and FREEDOM along with those expressed in our national founding documents (Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution) as well as the IDEAS expressed over thousands of years that were captured in these documents.
These LIBERATING IDEAS give us the fortitude and strength to combat those powers (foreign and domestic) that stealthily fight to take us all back to the worn out ideas that force a way of life similar to the dark-ages, the times of slavery with no hope for all except for the “special few”.
Reagan promoted and championed such IDEAS. As those IDEAS live on in the hearts and minds of those who know, love and understand them so does the memory of the life of Ronald Reagan. The others (Hitler, Lenin, Marx, etc) are failures that are really dead. They were promoting universal misery (except for themselves) that is pushed on civilization as well as the robbing all of us of our personal values of LIBERTY AND FREEDOM all in the name of the hollow benefits of ‘safety’ and mediocrity as primary / core values.
Yes, Thank you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.