Republican modernisers desert Romney as GOP looks to the future

A succession of top Republicans have begun distancing themselves from Mitt Romney after the former presidential hopeful made a series of blunt comments about minority groups as he sought to explain why he lost the race for the White House.

Romney, who less than two weeks ago was still a real contender to be America's next president, appears to have dramatically damaged his chances of becoming an influential party figure in the future.

Some moderate conservatives have started calling for Republicans to work harder to attract Hispanic voters, other minorities and women and to appear less extreme in some of its ideological stances such as tax cuts for the wealthy. Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal even went so far as to say the party had to stop being "the stupid party".

But on a conference call with his defeated donors last week Romney sparked outrage among many Republican figures after he appeared to say Obama had won support by "giving a lot of stuff" to some voters such as Hispanics, black Americans and young people in the form of healthcare, free contraceptives and forgiveness of college loan interests. "In each case, they were very generous in what they gave to those groups," Romney said.

full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/17/republican-modernisers-desert-romney-gop

Hmm. Notice a pattern? George W. Bush never actively campaigned for Republican candidates in any election since 2006, the year when Bush's approval rating began tanking. In 2002, Bush did speak at a rally endorsing Romney for governor of Massachusetts. And now the Republicans want their latest loser Mitt Romney to just GO AWAY.

Oh wait. While John McCain returned to the Senate as usual and won re-election in 2010, Sarah Palin has STILL been campaigning for Republicans in 2010 and 2012 and gets regular face time on Fox so-called News and on the Tea Party speaking circuit.

Meanwhile, both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have proudly campaigned for Democratic candidates since 2010. John Kerry won re-election to the Senate in 2008 and may succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.