One of the comments posted to this article says:
A stable of candidates? What is this horse breeding? In 2016 the Republican party will once again bring out another round of fruits, nuts and flakes who will rip into each other with the savage joyful zest usually demonstrated by sociopaths and psychotic madmen and then lose the election .Again. Even to Joe Biden.
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No need for GOP to panic
By Nolan Finley, November 11, 2012
Republicans are getting a lot of advice from those who would never vote for them on what it will take to end their string of presidential election losses at two.
Swerve to the left. Woo women. Learn Spanish. Stop drinking tea.
But nothing in last week's election gives the GOP cause to panic.
Yes, President Barack Obama looked beatable, and this seems an opportunity lost. But defeating any incumbent is a monumental challenge that takes the perfect candidate. Mitt Romney started with high negatives because of his wealth and detachment and couldn't close the gap.
And yet the Republican challenger collected just 3 million fewer votes than the president, out of 118 million cast. That's hardly a landslide loss that would merit a complete overhaul of party ideology and approach.
Eight years ago, an unpopular George W. Bush beat Sen. John Kerry to win re-election by a similar margin. Democrats didn't retreat to reshape their party to appeal more to white male voters, or Catholic voters, or senior voters, or to any other of the voting groups they lost in 2004.
Instead, they came back four years later to win with an even more liberal candidate.
Let's not forget that just two years ago Republicans scored an epic victory in the midterm elections. The nation's demographics haven't shifted that much since then.
Democrats explain that the 2010 shellacking resulted from poor turnout of their base. But with the ballot devoid of Obama, who has unique appeal to minority and younger voters, there's no guarantee that Democrats will show up as huge in 2014 or 2016. Meanwhile, Republicans have an incredible stable training to run next time.
Obama had surprisingly short coattails in this election. Democrats picked up a few seats in Congress, but not enough to oust the GOP from the House majority or change the dynamic of the Senate.
Republicans fared very well in state races, taking control of more Legislatures and picking up another gubernatorial post, bringing their total to 30.
Those who say the tea party's day is done need only look to Michigan, where voters elected one new tea party Republican to Congress and returned three others.
Exit polls indicate even though a liberal president was retained, a majority of voters prefer smaller government and don't support higher taxes to solve the fiscal crisis.
Republicans do need a tune-up. They have to communicate better with Hispanic voters and other ethnic groups that are becoming a larger piece of the electorate and may share their values on some issues (they did better with Jewish voters this time because of the GOP's support of Israel). They have to stop nominating idiots (Mourdock, Akin). And they must sell their pro-business message to entrepreneurial Millennials.
On the whole, this was a close election that did not mark a repudiation of the Republican Party.
The GOP doesn't need an extreme makeover, and America certainly doesn't need two Democratic parties.
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2 comments:
I hope the Republican party listens very closely to Mr. Finley. No retreat; in fact, double down on each and every one of your anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-middle class positions.
God, I can't wait for 2014!
Yeah, just keep on keepin' on until they really go down the tubes, and then maybe the GOP will cut the tea party loose.
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