GOP -- A One Pizza Party
WASHINGTON — A group of prominent GOP leaders on Saturday launched an effort to improve their party's sagging image, hosting an event at which they did not directly attack President Barack Obama, rarely used the word "Republican" and engaged in a healthy dose of self-criticism.
At a suburban pizza restaurant where they officially unveiled the National Council for a New America, party leaders attempted to portray Republicans as sensitive to the concerns of average Americans and shake off the "Party of No" label that Democrats have tried to affix to the GOP...
The town hall-style event, which drew a crowd of more than 100, also was the latest signal of Cantor's emergence as one of the party's leading voices. He announced the group's creation in a conference call Thursday, even as House Minority Leader John Boehner, of Ohio, was bashing Obama to reporters. Boehner is expected to have limited involvement in the new effort. 
"Our party has taken its licks over the last couple of cycles; no one is under any illusions about that,but that's why we're here. It's important for us to re-engage with the people of this country. ... The prescriptions coming out of Washington are not really reflective of the mainstream."
Eric Cantor (R-Virginia)
House Minority Whip
2 comments:
I’m not big on polls, because their target audience is heavily salted with opportunists, social climbers, and the weak-minded.
Nevertheless, I was struck by the latest Rasmussen polling that seems to belie the conventional wisdom that America is supportive of the Obama/Democrat agenda.
Here is a chart depicting the relative public support for the policies of the Democrats vis-a-vis Republicans - first in October 2008, an now in May 2009.
Issue '08 Dem Adv 09 Dem Adv
Economy +13 +1
Govt Ethics +10 +11
National Sec. +3 -7
Education +19 +13
Healthcare +20 +18
Taxes +5 -6
Iraq +5 -2
Social Security +12 +9
Abortion +9 0
Immigration +2 -1
Source: (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/trust_on_issues/trust_on_issues)
There are some sharp shifts in the polling, particularly in the areas of the Ecomomy, Taxes, Iraq, and Abortion.
The key questions are (1), is this true, and (2), if so, what is causing the shift. Surely not the policies of the GOP, which is certifiably powerless and in fact hasn’t been so far out of favor and popularity for 35 years.
But if these numbers are correct, something else is at work here. Either the actual policies of Democrats aren’t really that popular after all, or it might well be that Rush Limbaugh’s mind control is far more powerful than anyone thought.
RK:
I would suspect that polls would go down of the economy. The economy is stilling declining -- at a slower rate. I think the TEA Parties help beat the drum of confusion over where the economy is going and whether or not the policies of Obama and the Democrats will save the economy.
All the talked about the raising deficit and national debt bring the fear of our childrens' chlidren enslaved by socialistic poverty to pay for the financial sins of their forefathers. That McCain would be persuing similar policies -- with less earmarks -- and the fact that the deficit is rising because the economy is slowing down and revenues aren't being generated aren't part of the partsian screamfest.
I seen TEA Party 2.0 is steeping with the backing of such hardcore independents as Texas Gov. Rick Perry and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. No doubt they will be annoucing shortly that they will be leaving the GOP...yea right. They are jockeying for position to line up the fiscal conservatives in their camp for the 2012 election.
I don't put much time in reading these polls. I don't think they make much difference in the near term. However, maybe Obama's decision to not release torture pictures was driven by the polls. Maybe the decision to keep Gitmo fired up is driven by that. Maybe those decisions about the pictures and Gitmo are driven by the learning curve of reality that Obama is experiencing.
Taxes, the economy and abortion will be the three-song of the conservatives. Keep it simple, keep screaming the same three rants and you will have a core group of lemmings following you into the 2012 election cycle.
In the list above, the issues where the Dems were strongest in '08 are their core issues: health care,ethics, education and social security. Most of the others are core Rep issues.
If the economy is still bad in three years, Obama will have lots of explaining to do. If it starts turning around by mid-2010, the GOPers are going to look rather limp. They are banking on being able to run on the slogan "We told you it wouldn't work."
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