2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumAmazing! What did most Republicans LEARN from this Obama victory? NOTHING!
Check out this excellent report from NPR's Wade Goodwyn
GOP Governors Say Party Lost On Strategy, Not Issues
"...I knew it would be close. The Obama machine, the ground machine, is absolutely incredible," McCrory says. "I saw it in [2008], when I ran for governor and lost. ... I was blindsided by it. This time I wasn't blindsided by it, but I still think they have a much better ground machine than the Republican national party."
McCrory's take on the ground game is both true, and for Republican governors, politically convenient. The consensus in Las Vegas was that Obama won, not because Americans agreed with his positions on raising taxes on the rich or health care, but because Republicans got out-organized by the community organizer. Therefore, the president has no election mandate, because the reason he won had nothing to do with issues.
The other consensus was that Republican Mitt Romney wasn't a great presidential candidate.
"I really think this is not as much about Republican or Democrat, but about people are looking for leaders and they don't care what party they come from," he says. "I think what happened with Gov. Romney is he let himself be defined before he defined himself."
This analysis also lets Republican Party ideology off the hook. It was widely agreed that nothing needed to be changed except perhaps the tone. For example, the idea that more than 70 percent of Hispanics voted for the president because of Republican positions on illegal immigration was rejected by the Republican governors....(more at link)
http://www.npr.org/2012/11/18/165379129/gop-governors-say-party-lost-on-strategy-not-issues
dorkzilla
(5,141 posts)I say "have at it"...they'll learn, to their cost, and by the time the lights go on, no one will be home. We're watching the slow death march of the GOP, and I for one couldn't be happier.
think you are right. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. They are still obstinate.
AAO
(3,300 posts)Kolesar
(31,182 posts)If RW radio has any punch left, they will do it again.
The President only needs a few dozen 'puke party Congressmen to vote for immigration reform. An immigration reform bill is the best hope that gop presidential candidates have to put this issue behind them.
mojitojoe
(94 posts)...they lost due to vote fraud and nothing else. Well if that's what they want to believe then go right ahead. Don't change their message. Don't change their positions. Keep on doing what they're doing and they'll keep getting what they're getting.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)It's not that he's wrong when he beats her. It's that she makes him do it by making him mad. Same goes for the kids. If they would just not make him mad everything would be OK.
Up2Late
(17,797 posts)Stuff they know is bad for us!
unblock
(52,387 posts)if there's one thing you can count on, it's republicans saying something self-serving, no matter how obvious or obnoxious or insulting or disrespectful or ungracious.
SDjack
(1,448 posts)their package's content. Their response: Fuzzy up the wrapper to make it appealing. (Perhaps some people of various color, but with a white majority, dancing and hugging.) Essentially their challenge is to make a shit sandwich that the people want to eat because the wrapper really excites them. We will have to wait and see if it works in 2014.
SHRED
(28,136 posts)Logic is an alien concept for these 21st-century Whigs.
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)and the truth is, their policies SUCK for the average American. But that's because they're not in office for the average American. They're in office to cater to moneyed corporate masters, but they know they're never going to sell that to the blue-collar imbecile who is susceptible to million dollar corporate propaganda and hates "darkies" to the depths of his/her soul. So they come up with million-dollar talking points to fool their easily-fooled Lemmings into continuing to vote for their chosen lackeys.
oldbanjo
(690 posts)have done so much damage to this Country that It might never recover.
Maraya1969
(22,507 posts)Baraboosma
(5 posts)Help to incentivise the Democratic base to vote through "thinly guised" efforts to intact voter ID laws (in an effort to suppress the votes), that targeted important Democratic cohorts (ie, elderly, Latinos, AA, and young adults). The drivel coming out of Vegas is indicative of how truly out of touch GOP governors are!
CanonRay
(14,121 posts)I believed they'd learn nothing, and they haven't. They live in a fantasy world.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)a fact for which we mammals ought to be extremely grateful.
workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)Dustlawyer
(10,497 posts)DCBob
(24,689 posts)Admitting the truth would be admitting they are wrong and Republicans have a really hard time with that.
Please proceed
(59 posts)They learned that they must work harder to keep votes from counting. Either through longer lines, more difficult ballots, high tech vote rigging, or greater gerrymandering.
They will never admit that their message is wrong. Look at those assholes, do you see any effort on their part to change their ways?
Pakid
(478 posts)Well Republican can't learn any new tricks either. It would require opening up your mind to new ideas and that is something that they can not ever do!
wandy
(3,539 posts)Morning news flash on my MSN home page.
Hey GOP, take the Palin cure
She's hot, she's blue collar, she's electable.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-allen-palin-for-president-20121118,0,1525685.story
If You can't cure stupid, use it to you're advantage.
Palin in 2016!
The Wizard
(12,552 posts)that pretty much says it all.
DinahMoeHum
(21,815 posts)when the fact was, their product sucked, and people weren't buying it.
Rain Mcloud
(812 posts)The thousand year Reich is crumbling in less than 30 years since its inception.
The time to take it all back is now or they will double down on their mission to make the Banks into the United States Government.
They will never learn because it is a matter of faith and everybody knows that the bitter enemy of faith is fact.
Baraboosma
(5 posts)I have a couple of brothers who are staunch conservatives and libertarians. Two observation since the election:
1. How many Republicans are there, really? Many folks that voted for Mr. Romney have since the election - are distancing themselves from not only Mitt, but the GOP, as well. Most describe themselves as either "conservative" or "libertarian." And, go into a tirade on how flawed the GOP is (in which establishment GOP is Big Government and closely representative of Democratic Party - just without the hippie calories). Nearly two weeks since the election, I cannot find anyone who cops to being a Republican.
2. Two of my brother, of the six males in my family - all of whom voted Republican (with the exception of myself, I am the only liberal out of a Catholic Scott/Irish family of nine siblings), went on to explain how many 'friends' they have that are brown, black, or yellow in terms of skin color. Which seems weird due to the fact that all my brothers and sisters are good people and extremely successful. I have siblings that are very skilled and white collar professionals, that by vocation are : doctors, lawyers, engineers, commodities traders on the NYSE, an air traffic controller, and nursing home administrator. My parents are very proud of their children, but disappointed with their offspring's political leanings (both parents were liberal Democrats). I would have never predicted that that I would hear from family members, "Why, some of my best friend are...."
ewagner
(18,964 posts)[b]"When your opponent is in the process of committing suicide, ....don't stop him."[/b]
Up2Late
(17,797 posts)when they cut to the RW guy on "Point/Counter-point" he says, "I say, Let 'em Crash."
ewagner
(18,964 posts)Ganja Ninja
(15,953 posts)The majority of voters that turned out did not vote for the GOP. Spin that any way you want Republicans. The bottom line is you lost so if you're planning on repeating the last 4 years go right ahead, see how that works out for you.
dotymed
(5,610 posts)A Democratic President can get by with much more than an R. We must hold his feet to the fire and make sure that our "entitlements" that we paid for, are preserved and improved. We must protect ourselves. The race is over but we must remember the things that were always "off the table" during his first term. we must be progressive.
Ivywoods55
(131 posts)that 75% of the Nation cling to republocan values, are open to their mindset, and are bat-chit crazy. We must not go out of our way to inform them that they are the ones whose minds are really messed up, and it's not how they say stuff that make people reject them, but it is WHAT they say, that make people know their minds have gone a million miles beyond a trip to Mars. If we continue to try and reason with them maybe one or two will "get it" and it may start a "commonsense" revolution. We want to continue to win elections, and if we start them on a "commonsense" trend people may really start to take them seriously.
aandegoons
(473 posts)If they could learn they would not be Republicans.
Very true!
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)You got it!
Jennicut
(25,415 posts)Now we have to do the hard work and drive up the numbers during midterms. Their views and the demographics of the country are not good for the Republican brand in the long run.
boingboinh
(290 posts)want to help latinos.
barbtries
(28,815 posts)and they can keep on losing, go away for ever, and we get a new party on the left that is actually viable. a woman can dream.
CheapShotArtist
(333 posts)Republican #2: I dunno. Maybe we should change the wrappers that we put them in.
Republican #1: Yeah, that's a splendid idea! Our wrappers were actually ugly. We just have to change them, that's all. And then customers will come pouring in!
Sheepshank
(12,504 posts)of bull crap is never going to smell like a piles of rose petals....no matter how much they spin the facts. I'm coming to conclusion, there are plenty of Reps that recognize this.
workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)Those freakin idiots at freakrepublic, redstate and all of hate radio have the answer as to why Rmoney and Ryan failed miserably along with most repigs in the election folks.
Its because they were not...wait for it...RADICAL RIGHT WING ENOUGH!
Thats right folks, America was apparently waiting for a thug candidate to the right of Adolf Hitler! Yeah that its repigs! LOLOLOLOL!
Their only hope now is a Palin/Pope Ricky ticket! LOLOL! PLEASE OH PLEASE let the totally delusional asswipes nominate those knuckle dragging black holes of rational thought! PLEASE select the Medieval twins of the unholy Ray-gun Inquisition repigs!
Hillary will ANNIHILATE you and your stinking party off the face of the earth!
meow2u3
(24,774 posts)They have to conceal their hate in pretty packaging.