Xfinity News: Jindal: GOP must stop being 'stupid party'

[twa]

You honestly think the anti-immigration; yes, anti-immigration party and not just anti-illegal immigration party will vote for a Hispanic.

You are honestly going to ignore the fact they already are doing so?

how did Rubio and Cruz become Senators in the two most populous red states w/o getting votes?
the Gov of NM?

watching Cruz is gonna be entertaining

[Burgold]

I guess the real question is can Party leaders even understand his or K's message?

There seems to be a divide on this. This is at least second time since the election where a prominant Repulican has tried to say this. There seems to be a bunch of introspection and a searching of souls in the GOP. They really can't conceive why they lost. I think it's simple, the American public was faced with a choice of...

We have to pay our bills...

and trust me, I have a plan, I just can't tell you what it is.

Americans chose taxes. Doesn't that tell you how bad the other guy must have been?

[zoony]

I guess the real question is can Party leaders even understand his or K's message?

There seems to be a divide on this. This is at least second time since the election where a prominant Repulican has tried to say this. There seems to be a bunch of introspection and a searching of souls in the GOP. They really can't conceive why they lost. I think it's simple, the American public was faced with a choice of...

We have to pay our bills...

and trust me, I have a plan, I just can't tell you what it is.

Americans chose taxes. Doesn't that tell you how bad the other guy must have been?

Yah, basically, we will pay good money to keep that clown away from the Oval Office

[JimboDaMan]

You are honestly going to ignore the fact they already are doing so?

how did Rubio and Cruz become Senators in the two most populous red states w/o getting votes?
the Gov of NM?

watching Cruz is gonna be entertaining

Agree with you there. The GOP loves to find "good blacks" and "good Hispanics" and will vote for them like crazy if they are ideologically pure.

Rubio will always have a citizenship issue with a segment of the right though. I don't see that as a problem for the GOP as a whole. But should be good for lotsa laffs watching the Tea Party schizoid out over Rubio's eligibility for the Presidency.

<edit>Should add that Jindal has the same eligibility issue among the less enlightened parts of the right wing.

[Riggo-toni]

Obama was the weakest incumbent since Carter, and despite their best efforts to disenfranchise a noticeable proportion of the population, the GOP still couldn't come close to beating him. The only sane candidate they could muster was a guy who'd lost EVERY election he'd ever been in save one...where he rode in on his predecessors coattails.

[skinsmarydu]

[QUOTE=Burgold;9410507
Americans chose taxes. Doesn't that tell you how bad the other guy must have been?[/QUOTE]

Yah, basically, we will pay good money to keep that clown away from the Oval Office

Exactly.

[Dan T.]

Eh, Romney would have done fine as President whether you agree with him ideologically or not. He was a competent businessman and a decent governor. His public stiffness and bouts with foot-in-mouth disease weren't disqualifying factors.

[Riggo-toni]

Romney was not a particularly good governor - left office with a 35% approval rating. Corzinee was an even more successful investor than Romney, and he bankrupted NJ. William Weld was Mass' best governor in recent memory, but the GOP blacklisted him for coming out in favor of medical mj.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

The GOP needs to stop being the outdated party. They need to learn to bend a lot more and stop being the It's our way or the highway" party. I mean do these fools read the paper or watch the news? Most of the country blames the fiscal cliff and most of our economic problems on them.

They just come off as being old and outdated IMO.

Started reading "The Fifties" by David Halberstam last night. It starts with a breakdown of the political parties to start the decade. It is absolutely unreal how the more things change, the more they stay the same. When I get home tonight I'll type up a couple of paragraphs and post them.


I'll say this in the meantime, the bad news for Republicans is that today there sure as hell doesn't appear to be an Eisenhower anywhere that they can recruit to head the party.

[alexey]

I blame the media. People keep saying that Fox News, Talk Radio, etc are media wings of the GOP. In reality, GOP is now the political wing of that entertainment establishment.

[skinsmarydu]

Wait, does this mean they're going to start believing in science? They're going to reject their fundamental belief in magic rape-sperm repellent vaginas in favor of embryology, evolution, climate science, and all those other "lies from the pit of hell"?
Funny how this is just the sort of thing Huntsman was saying for the last 2 years, but couldn't get past 2% of the primary vote in the polls.

Yep, they had Huntsman and wouldn't give him the time of day. We were willing to listen to more of his ideas (the bleeding-heart liberals that we are), but the GOP cut him off...I think because he had a brain and wasn't stupid.

[Buford]

Rubio isn't going anywhere. You honestly think the anti-immigration; yes, anti-immigration party and not just anti-illegal immigration party will vote for a Hispanic. Rubio, especially if he plays a big role in an immigration bill get passed will not do well in the Republican primaries. The right wing voters will not vote for him.

ding ding ding.

[Predicto]

Not going to pile on here.

Just want to say that this is a welcome development. The country needs the competent, intellectually honest GOP back.

Even though I am a liberal Democrat and the current trends in the GOP are very welcome to my party from an electoral/demographic point of view, I would rather have good intelligent Republicans in there even if we end up losing a lot of elections to them.


as an aside, anyone who thinks that GOP base voters will not vote for Rubio or other conservative minorities is out of their minds. Hell, Herman Cain was the GOP frontrunner for a while, and he was mindbogglingly unqualified to be President.

[Special K]

K, what does Couric being a former child cheeleader have to do with anything ? That discredits her in some way ?

I think not.

This thread reminds me of a movie I watched recently called Swing Vote. Not good really, but interesting.

What zoony said

[greenspandan]

The GOP needs to make up their minds; do they love the base or try to alienate it? Me thinks they are conceding too much of the center to the Democrats...

they're currently standing in quite a hole they've dug for themselves. they have a loyal and politically active base, but that base operates in an echo chamber that is somewhat disconnected from reality. in primaries, anyone that expresses opinions that aren't far-right wingnut gets savaged. the result is they nominate people who are often unelectable in a general election. the GOP lost several seats that should have been no-brainer wins for them, but lost because they would rather nominate borderline sociopaths than moderates.

And look at the presidential election. First of all, Obama was clearly vulnerable. The recovery was "meh" and his approval ratings were not very good. but the GOP simply can't win nationally in its current form. i mean, in the context of the GOP primaries, Romney was by far the only remotely electable option, the most sane and moderate candidate by far (maybe you could argue for Huntsman too, but he got so little consideration he barely counts) . and indeed, his biggest obstacle in the primaries was convincing Republican voters that Romney was conservative enough. but once he walked out of the GOP echo chamber and into the race against Obama, the rest of the country couldn't get over what an absurd parody of out of touch fat cat wealth and privilege he was. like, he may as well have worn a top hat and monacle. and he was the GOP's flaccid, moderate, compromise of a candidate! good luck to them if their base ever nominates a guy they really like.

in short, the problem is that the GOP has a big enough pool of crazies to skew their primaries so far right that the winner often can't get elected in the general even in otherwise-favorable situations. don't get me wrong -- the party is far from dead. they've got huge swaths of the country where they're still pretty safe. and it only takes one pretty good candidate to win a presidential election, so who knows (and i think we can all agree that while Obama is a hell of a campaigner, the Democrats are totally capable of electing boring, droning, schoolmarmy presidential candidates, but i digress).

in macro, this out of touch, hardline base that keeps them from nominating moderates is causing real damage every single cycle.