[T]he party’s main problem, dozens of Republican National Committee members argued in interviews over three days this week, is who delivers its message and how, not the message itself. Overwhelmingly they insisted that substantive policy changes aren’t the answer to last year’s losses.Moderation, at least at this stage, is no virtue at the RNC.
[….]
“We don’t need a new pair of shoes; we just need to shine our shoes,” said West Virginia national committeewoman Melody Potter.
I agree with Atrios that the big question is whether they’ll moderate on immigration, and that it’s not clear that they will:
Opposition to this stuff (immigration reform) is in part racism, but it’s also based on the general belief in wingnuttia that the blahs and the brahs, even the illegal brahs, have access to some secret super generous welfare system that white people can’t get access to. As Craig T. Nelson said, “I have been on food stamps and welfare no one helped me out.”
The nut of this is the following: comprehensive immigration reform hurts Republicans in the short term (by increasing the number of Latino voters) but helps in the longterm (by blunting the Democratic advantage among Latino voters). If by “short term”, one means the 2014 election, then ramping ALL kinds of winger craziness (other than comments about rape and witches and the like) may help Republicans since it amps up turn-out among the old and crazy, and midterm elections are all about turn-out…but likewise, all this craziness turns off the next generation of voters.
ruemara
Well, holy fuck. Because all the wimmens and browns need is a shine on the fucktarded clown shoes. Damn that there isn’t a fricking real desert for these asses to wander in for 30 years.
Allan
“We don’t need a new pair of shoes; we just need Michael Steele to shine our shoes,” said West Virginia national committeewoman Melody Potter.
FIFY, Melody.
Debbie(Aussie)
….and no one helped me out’ . Is that a new version of govt hands off my Medicare? :)
scav
I assumed that was a FY(R)P autocorrect, shoes for shit.
scav
I assumed that was a FY(R)P autocorrect, shoes for shit.
ETA, DEMONSTRATION by karma, no?
schrodinger's cat
I don’t think that the base wants to moderate on immigration. Just watch, the crazy will be turned up to eleven. When Congress takes up immigration reform. The health care debate will seem like a picnic. I think the leadership and the moneyed interests are for it and the base is against it. We will see who comes out ahead.
Xantar
I just realized it’s projection. They’re used to being such dumbasses that they can convince themselves into believing anything or even two contradictory ideas at once. So they don’t understand why they can’t win any other policy fight by marketing things just the right way without changing any underlying facts or ideas.
Mike G
“We don’t need a new
pair of shoesturd; we just need to shine ourshoesturd,” said West Virginia national committeewoman Melody Potter.All they know how to do is sell garbage to gullible, angry idiots, so that’s what they’ll keep doing.
Keep fucking that chicken, Republicans.
Mark S.
Craig T. Nelson’s a big wingnut? Man, maybe I’ll pitch a new sitcom starring him, Kelsey Grammar, Victoria Jackson, and the wife from Everybody Loves Raymond as four wingnuts and their crazy adventures blaming everything on feminists and minorities. It could be the Seinfeld of the 2010’s.
Scotius
If they’re counting on turnout for the 2014 midterms, they might be in for a little surprise. I suspect that the Democrats may have learned a few lessons from 2010. It certainly can’t have been lost on Obama just how much harder his his life became with a Republican House of Representatives. I think that’s one reason he hasn’t disbanded his vote getting operation. Since he also is not going to be distracted by by trying to implement his health care plan and deal with the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression, he will also have a lot more time and energy to put in to 2014.
The prophet Nostradumbass
. This crap isn’t even exclusive to the US. I have relatives in Britain and Ireland who are convinced that “illegal aliens” get more government benefits than everyone else. It’s bullshit, of course, but try dissuading them.
Baud
So let’s turn out.
katie5
Doug, I’d amend as follows:
“comprehensive immigration reform hurts Republicans in the short term (by increasing their chance of being primaried) but helps in the longterm (because they believe Latino voters are naturally conservative).”
Snarki, child of Loki
Okay! So after Romney had a massive flame-out and crash, the solution is obviously to find a Super-Romney to implement their new, improved strategery: MOAR LYING.
Think the 2012 GOP campaign was post-truth? You won’t even be able to see a glimmer of truth over the horizon in 2014. They’ll be so far into fantasyland that they’ll be running Sauron/Palin 2016.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Dear NeoConfederates,
It’s not who delivers your message or how it’s delivered that makes your message look stupid, it’s the fact that your message IS stupid that makes it look stupid.
End transmission.
General Stuck
LOL, that sounds just like some of my pappy’s wingnut axioms over the years. That says fuck it, full steam ahead and let the bullshit flow a little more better.
The GOP is the party of status quo, in this case, both the virus and the patient.
edit – reminded me of a true story. My pappy, a real estate broker had this huge poster nailed to his office wall of Ronald Reagan. One day I quipped, ‘you think that sucker is big enough, pops” He looked at me like he was looking at Lenin, and just said the poster wasn’t big enough, the goddam wall was too small.
schrodinger's cat
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Emissary is wise.
Chris
@Xantar:
Like I’ve said before – their problem is that they’re so used to dazzling voters with bullshit they just can’t imagine that voters might just want concrete results.
Violet
This attitude is nothing new. They think they don’t need to change their beliefs and strategies–they just need a new spokesperson for the shit they’re selling. Everyone will love cutting Medicare and hating on minorities and women if a black man tells them it’s a good thing. Etc.
Debbie(Aussie)
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
We have the same problem here in Aus. An aunt of my husbands actually said’ if your dark and you come by boat you get everything’ implying that in some way she misses out. Frustrates the hell out of me. I used to work for centrelinkthe dept that makes welfare payments, so know it is all bs.
MikeJ
Article in The Hill claiming that if Hillary runs she wins Texas.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I can’t find a quote, because even the liberal blogs are just reporting he told Republicans to stop being stupid, but when Haley Barbour said that, he also said something about needing to persuade Teh Minorities that there’s more to life than government hand-outs.
Michael G
@General Stuck: You can’t polish a turd, Beavis.
sb
So in light of a resounding electoral defeat, one in which it was clear to anyone and everyone that they were getting demographically killed, their solution is that they need to stick to the message but make it even more clear? As in, we need to more clearly state that blahs and brahs are taking our stuff and wimmen need managing…
Serious question: is that what I’m reading?
Cacti
They’re in denial that the southern strategy is in terminal decline.
Mittens pulled in 59% of the white vote and still got thumped. Also too, the white portion of the total electorate has been dropping 2-4 percent since 1996.
There just aren’t enough persuadable crackers to make the Reagan formula work anymore.
General Stuck
@MikeJ:
Hillary really needed this recent rest from the injury she got. She gave an inspired performance at her congress hearings, and looked and sounded sharp as a tack. If she can keep that edge until 2016, she will be a force of nature to be reckoned with.
If she runs, just don’t bring the same grifter asshole advisers this time, and I could support her whole heartedly.
sb
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think the quote is here.
Neil
…so now they need to find a blah person to shine their shoes?!?!?
Maude
@ruemara:
Into the desert until they die off. They will not change. They are a hazard to the country. Like toxic waste.
Feudalism Now!
There is no chance the Republican party changes until they are out of power. Not just federal but state as well. All that are left in the GOP are chicken fuckers, so by golly, the chicken will be fucked. The only immigration reform the 27% want is minutemen, electric fences and papers please. The rump will tear down as much of the country as they can in their death throes.
Violet
2016 speculation continues. Here’s a fluff piece on Martin O’Malley’s abs:
Baud
I wonder what will be the “Obamacare” of 2014 that the GOP uses to drive turnout. The problem with using immigration is that there are a lot of people on the other side who could also be riled up by the hate talk. Guns makes more sense logically, but will that be enough? Climate change and (no offense) gays are relatively boring issues, so I don’t think those will be winners.
katie5
But Republicans are very good at framing and messaging. What really sunk them in 2012 and allowed the Claire McCaskill’s of the world to get elected was their sheer brazen “We can say what we really feel.” If they polish the shoes then they can slip by the notice of the low information voter.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Two days ago, Newt Gingrich and Bobby Jindal both called for yet another re-branding of the Republican party. The party heeded the clarion call of those two geniuses:
LINK
This should be at least as successful as their last few efforts at re-branding.
Roger Moore
I don’t know if it’s that they’re given access to a different system or just that they’re all a bunch of cheats who are bilking the system in the way that honest but poor white folks would never dream of doing. Remember that the story of the Cadillac driving welfare mom wasn’t that she was taking advantage of some other system, just that she was registered under multiple names and with fake children.
Burnspbesq
Part of the reason why it’s hard to have a conversation with a wing nut is that there is no agreement on what words mean.
The Gingrich quote in the Politico article is a perfect example. When Gingrich talks about the need for Obama to “compromise on our terms,” he is in effect re-defining the word “compromise” to mean “capitulate.” And if the semantic trick works, then Obama is painted into a corner, because it becomes unreasonable for him to do anything other than capitulate.
Orwell would be impressed.
MikeJ
@Baud: The things that seem boring and settled to us are still dynamite for the retarded, and midterms are all about getting them to the polls.
Cacti
@MikeJ:
Even if she just made Texas competitive, the GOP would be headed for a Goldwater-esque drubbing.
I think she’d also put MO and AR into play.
katie5
@MikeJ: Getting them to the polls in as many newly redistricted districts as possible.
sb
@Baud: All I know is they will think of something and truth won’t matter a whit. Yeah, I know, big news flash.
I was dumb enough to flat out dismiss Palin’s lie about death panels, asking myself, “Self, who would believe this shit?” Turns out a lot of people did.
They’ll invent an issue and make considerable hay of it. My guess? Something to do with immigrant mothers.
Baud
@MikeJ:
I don’t presume to understand the wingnut mind. I believe they find those issues boring based on what I hear them say and how they say it. But who knows?
amk
@Baud: Yup. Fucking vote fucking every two years instead of fucking every four years. It’s that fucking simple.
Roger Moore
@Maude:
Damn straight. Remember, the 40 years in the desert was imposed so that none of the generation who failed to trust God were able to make it to the Holy Land. Only Joshua and Caleb, who maintained their faith, were allowed in. That’s what the Republicans need.
Burnspbesq
@Violet:
Mercury, cadmium, selenium … And Old Bay seasoning.
Roger Moore
@Violet:
I’ll take it. If the Villagers start swooning and having man crushes over Democratic candidates, it’s a sign that the tide is genuinely turning.
amk
@Baud: This. Fucking vote fucking every two years instead of fucking every four years. It’s that fucking simple.
gf120581
@Cacti: I read articles during the campaign that said 2012 was the last time the GOP could plausibly win on white votes alone. They failed. Now demographics have made that impossible. And that means the Southern Strategy is officially dead and buried, at least on a national level. It can still work in certain states, yes, but you can’t get elected President anymore using it.
But the GOP still doesn’t get how to appeal to minorities. They still seem to think the “look at how many tokens we have in office” approach will get them support, when it hasn’t worked since, well, ever. Tim Scott in the Senate will not get them black votes. Nor will waving Mark Rubio in front of the cameras get them Hispanic votes. Those voters want substance, not cheap media tricks.
jheartney
@Michael G:
Yes you CAN
Jay C
@General Stuck:
What U sed about Hillary: I caught her on “60 Minutes” this evening sitting next to President Obama, and I couldn’t help but thinking that it look like a (very) early campaign appearance. I know I’d vote for her in an instant – if her health stays good (she will turn 69 a couple of weeks before the 2016 election) – she would be a formidable candidate – and the perfect one (IMO) to carry on whatever “legacy” Barack Obama is likely to want to leave.
scav
@Violet: Immediately following the 2016 wet t-shirt competition, the candidate will be announced: “There he is, Mr America . . . “
Spaghetti Lee
Do Republicans even know how to do anything aside from ‘rebrand’? Seems like 30-odd years of selling the sizzle and stealing the steak has convinced them not merely that rebranding will fool enough voters, but that rebranding is the only thing there is. I mean, not that I’m complaining.
The Dangerman
See that son? That there’s shit …. and that there’s shinola.
The jerks.
Maude
@Roger Moore:
I don’t see the vitriol ending without the haters being off the Earth.
They keep stirring the pot. It used to be called the politics of resentment.
I’ve noticed that people who are self superior are incompetent.
True about the 40 years. Get a fresh start by getting rid of the deadwood.
Jay C
@Jay C:
Fun fact: should Hillary Clinton (born 10/26/1947) run and be elected President, she would, come the next Inauguration Day (1/20/2017) be the second-oldest person to take the Oath. Not that it’s much of a precedent to cite, but only Ronald Reagan would have been older….
jrg
Good luck re-branding while you have no message control. Obama’s proven time and time again he knows how to troll these idiots.
Not that “re-branding” would work, anyway. People gullible enough for that are already Republicans.
SatanicPanic
@Mark S.:
Michael Richards wouldn’t be all that out of place either.
dmsilev
@General Stuck:
That’s the one big worry I have about a Hillary ’16 scenario. Has she developed better taste in minions? If she runs and her campaign doesn’t have a shoot-on-sight order out on Mark Penn, I’d be very tempted to see what the other candidates have to offer.
Chris
@gf120581:
It’s not that they don’t know how, it’s that they *can’t.* Their voters won’t let them. They can’t do anything to broaden the tent without exposing themselves to a primary challenge from a dude who can rally the Angry White Conservative voters – enough of them to win.
They’re trapped in a lose lose situation, where their only choices are between losing in the primary and losing in the general.
Maude
@dmsilev:
She still owes on her 2008 campaign debt.
She has the same “friends” around her as she always had. Lanny Davis is an example.
dmsilev
@Violet: Hmmm. I lived in Baltimore when O’Malley was running for his first term as mayor, and at the time the local equivalent of the Village was all a-swoon about the band that he had founded. If memory serves, I believe the description was “Irish folk rock”, whatever that is supposed to mean.
Let’s hope O’Malley doesn’t run for President, because if he does we’ll be able to see Chris Matthews’ erection from orbit and nobody wants that.
El Cid
@The Dangerman: They prefer the shit.
They just want to call it shinola.
dmsilev
@Maude: I thought I remember reading that she paid off that debt.
(Googles). Yep. As of the end of 2012.
russell
There’s no cure for stupid like that. We just have to wait for them all to die out.
It’ll be like that weird Japanese WWII soldier who they finally pried out of the Phillipines in 1974. They had to find his former commanding officer and officially relieve him of duty.
Sometime around 2038 they’ll reincarnate Reagan by cloning him from a piece of his Brylcreemed hair, then they’ll find the last Tea Partier and have Son O’ Reagan tell him to stand down.
And, then we’ll all be able to move forward.
I’ll probably be dead. I hope it all works out OK.
Johannes
Proceed, wingnuts.
Xenos
@Maude: Not toxic waste so much as nuclear waste: the half life is short enough that the poison is lessening, critically, in our lfetimes, but there will be a long tail to this, and we will never be fully rid of them for the foreseeable future.
Maude
@Xenos:
That’s a better way to do it.
Faux News
@Violet: As a Gay Democrat living in Maryland I must say that our LT Governor Anthony Brown is much more built and better looking than Governor O’Malley. Lt Governor Brown makes Paul Ryan look like Gollum from Lord of the Rings. Although Gollum does have those blue puppy eyes that Ryan has.
Maude
@dmsilev:
She paid it off last week. I hadn’t read that.
It makes it hard to raise money when the debt lingers. It might not be easy for her to raise money for 2016.
Spaghetti Lee
If we’re talking sexy politican-men, I nominate Martin Heinrich: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Martin_Heinrich,_official_portrait,_112th_Congress.jpg
Seriously, look at that smooth bastard. He could leave the Senate and start doing period romances and no one would even bat an eye.
And for sexy politician-ladies, of course: http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/article_large/public/2012/11/12/kyrsten-sinema_0.jpg
They should do some study on whether having a sexy congressperson makes people more politically involved.
General Stuck
@Maude:
If she wants the nomination, current polling says it is all hers, and the money will flow. But there will be a big problem if she lets things backslide from all the hard work begun by Howard Dean and then Obama that redirected that money being spent out in the states and for a national data base and org, rather than the Clintonista DC bloodsucker consultant creeps like Mark Penn et al.
That would be a disaster from the solid spot left for correct priorities under Barack Obama. I don’t know if Hillary would honor that new and productive reality, or she would give in to old alliances and hucksterism. But it worry’s the dickens out of me, when I think of 2016, which fortunately is not much right now.
Yutsano
@Spaghetti Lee: Oh sure. Go for the bisexual woman. :P
Suzanne is rightly proud of her I must say.
@Faux News: I like the cut of your jib good fellow!
Maude
@General Stuck:
Perhaps Gilibrand (sp) will give it a try. She would be a solid Dem.
We need new people for 2016. Also, technology keeps progressing and the pres is going to have to know how to use it.
Spaghetti Lee
@General Stuck:
Interesting data. Most interesting is that Santorum finishes pretty much last/next-to-last among Republicans polled. I guess even Next-in-line-ism has its limits.
Shrillhouse
I thought I read something about Hillary having some double vision now. Just how serious was this blood clot business? If she’s got lingering health issues, that will be on top of the fact that she will be 69 in 2016.
Not that I think she’ll run anyways…
shortstop
@Faux News: does Brown have a high-pitched, squeaky voice? Unfortunately, people forget about O’Malley’s abs when he opens his mouth and sounds like a cartoon character.
shortstop
I find it perplexing that people will think that Hillary wouldn’t want to run. Why the hell wouldn’t she want to? She’s perfectly positioned for it, with excellent prospects of election, and its the culmination of her life’s work. Does she really strike some people as the type to suddenly settle down on the porch and call it a career?
shortstop
@shortstop: hate, hate, hate no BJ comment editing on my phone.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@shortstop:
She may want to run, but she may have too many health problems to be able to do it. Blood clot near the brain=not a good sign.
Maude
@Shrillhouse:
The vision is from the concussion. She has issues from it, but only the vision has been made public.
shortstop
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): That’s why I limited my statement to “WANTS to run.” Lots of people are walking around insisting they don’t think she wants it. I don’t see any evidence for that view.
danielx
Proving yet again that there are amazing numbers of people out there who believe that it is, in fact, possible to polish a turd.
hells littlest angel
If you give a Republican shoe polish, is he going to be able to resist putting it on his face? You know, as a harmless joke?
Chuck Butcher
Could we maybe, just maybe plesaaassee be done with political dynasties? I don’t care if the GOPers want to run Bushs for the next couple decades but…
Yutsano
@hells littlest angel: Y U MAKE TEH SACRED LADY JANE CRY??
zoot
there is no danger of republicans changing anything. Their personality defects: outrageous ignorance, bigotry, authoritarianism, violence, irrationality, and obscene hypocrisy are as strong today as they were before the election. A maggot can’t change who it is.
Joey Maloney
@Snarki, child of Loki:
The problem isn’t that Romney was a liar, it’s that he was an incompetent liar.
Joel
Maybe the Republicans should stop emulating the characters in a Sinclair Lewis novel. That would be a start.
pkdz
Governor Walker is bragging about bringing 125 jobs to northern Wisconsin (Curt Manufacturing, which is near Eau Claire). But it was Governor Doyle who gave the grants in December 2010 and the funds were made possible through Obama’s stimulus. Governor Walker has no shame.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2011/04/25/governor-scott-walker-caught-in-political-plagiarism/
Fred
I see it is unanimous here that GOP has no future since Romney screwed the pooch but I’m not so cock sure. Remember that Romney kept kicking that sleeping bear until it finally woke up and then the Teahadiban idjits kept baiting the creature until it ate their lunch.
Newt and the Boyz might be right that they can pull off another con so long as nobody puts the wind up at an inconvienient time. The GOPers know how to grift so long as they can keep the true believers off the stage and the Mitt Show drove home how important that effort will be.
Don’t sell The Boyz short. They’re nothing if not persistant and they got the bucks ta-boot. And of course never forget that the American undecideds (they are always undecided too) have the long term memories of the proverbial gnat. GOTV!
Fort Geek
Hey, Republican dumbasses: it’s not the packaging. It’s the product. Your product sucks. It sucks. It fucking sucks. Your product fucking sucks.
Doesn’t matter how you wrap it, a turd’s still a turd.
FFS, it’s so damn simple even a gopper should be able to understand it, but they just keep flogging the packaging.
Unsympathetic
@Chris:
Pivot! Pivot back to the CENTERRRRRRRR!
It just might work if not for these pesky Internets, recording everything they say to win the primary. Durn libruls and their use of the search button!
johnny aquitard
@Burnspbesq:
To say nothing of redefining what ‘hard core left-wing’ means.
That quote from Newtie is a perfect summation the republican world view. These are people who are incapable of functioning in a democratic society, and indeed are hostile to it.