JIM VANDEHEI & MIKE ALLEN of Politico suggest six ways for the GOP to save itself.
1. Get A Clue - establish some principles and stand for them, whether it is smaller government, stronger defense, whatever, but form a vision and stick with it.
2. Cut The Crap - GOP has provided an ample supply of bad spending and scandals, clean it up.
3. Beg For Help - Democrats might appear to be in chaos, but it is well financed chaos. GOP needs support and supporters need a reason.
4. Burn The Bush - Loyalty to a point of fault, time to abandon the Titanic.
5. Change The Pitch And Your Face - the party needs fresh reassuring packaging and diversity and youth.
6. Fan The Fear - Democrats are soft on security and terrorists and with McCain atop the ticket GOP should trump their patriotism and protection for the country.
Presidential Candidate John McCain, a nonconformist, is likely the person who can reinvent the Republican brand. An advocate for controlling government spending is a return to a strongly held GOP principle that has been lost recently, but McCain will be more centrist in other areas such as; the environment, and diplomacy in foreign policy. McCain is a strong minded independent thinker who will cross party lines in order to get things done.
Obama is naive if he thinks he is going to run an anti-Washington campaign and get voters to believe he can change the way they do business, many have said that before him and failed to deliver. Obama said the other day; the war is in its sixth year, Osama bin Laden is still free, al-Qaida is active and Iran is bold. It is logical to ask what is his plan, beyond his soaring rhetoric? Obama will have to answer questions, he will not be able to escape simply by his criticisms of the way things are currently, he needs to articulate his positions.
The right candidate is one who can navigate and work issues in a bi-partisan manner and govern from the center, such is the experience of McCain. There is a difference between the candidates, one is just hope and the other is experience and results, if McCain can re-brand Republicans and present them with a vision, he can win.
"A government big enough to give you everything you want,
is big enough to take away everything you have"
Thomas Jefferson
4 comments:
#6 Fan the Fear, is one of the of Republican strategies which got the party in big trouble to begin with. It was a fun tactic because it was so easy for the grass roots Republicans to understand and use on their liberal neighbors who never did buy into it. It only worked on themselves and they became the "fraidy-cat" party. But, it won't work again, especially if it becomes a part of John McCain's campaign. And, the Republicans will have a hard time trumping their patriotism if they fail to override Mr. Bush's veto of the GI Bill. Perhaps a new Republican slogan:
Republican, the Duck and Cover Party
take cover, i heard them say
don't go outside to play
the warning we dread
is now up to code red
dick cheney goes hunting today
7. Repent. Ask America's Republican voters for forgiveness for screwing them over for the last 8 years.
8. Define and agree on a good definition of "ethics" and "character" and "morality". Then put them in your platform.
9. I.D. your constituants and their opinions. Not just the rich and powerful ones. All of them.
10. Hold this Administration accountable for their impeachable offenses.
11. get Republicans to explain how they are (finally) going to get bin Laden.
Ditch the party all together and start a new party. Let the republican name fly to the wind like that of the failed Federalist party. I think everyone with the exception of the "holly roller conservatives" are ready to see the end of the totalitarian regime.
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