We’re going the way of the dinosaurs, and quick. The meteor’s already hit, and we’re just trying to wonder what the blast zone will look like."
~ David Johnson, Florida GOP strategist
I don’t think there’s ever a time to have circular firing squads, going out and beating each other up in the media. I mean, Republicans, conservatives, everyone. We need to figure this out. It’s not going to be something that’s figured out today, not going to be figured out tomorrow. It’s going to take a lot of communication and discussing, it’s going to take a while to figure it out.
. . . There’s always Monday morning quarterbacking, but to go out and beat each other up in the media is not helpful.
. . . There’s plenty of blame to go around, but at the end of the day, the Republican Party has a branding problem.
~ Amy Kremer, leader of Tea Party Express
What Republicans need to learn is: How do we speak to all Americans? You know, not just the people who look like us and act like us, but how do we speak to all Americans?
~ Speaker of the House John Boehner, (R-OH)
I think that the GOP is the Whig party.
. . . What do you say we throw John Boehner out. I think we should throw the GOP out.
. . . John Boehner, ridiculous. Karl Rove how much money did you spend? These guys blew it.
. . . It’s autopsy day. And we’re going to look at this body but then we have to find the way because what we’re doing is not working. Well it is for them because all they’re doing is depressing the vote. They didn’t have as many people voting for him. Fewer people came out. On both sides. And I think that’s because they’re just disgusted by the whole thing. I know I am. Boy, am I disgusted by Washington and the people in there. I look at John Boehner. I didn’t want to see him. I don’t want to hear from the President any more. I’m really kind of I’m going to take care of my school board. I’m going to take care of my mayor. I’m going to take care of my town and I’m going to — because I can’t fight that huge machine,
~ Glenn Beck, radio pundit
The Republican Party cannot be a national party if we give up the entire East Coast of the United States. We don’t have any Republicans in New England. We don’t have Republicans in the mid-Atlantic states. We can’t continue to diss the Latino voters.
My wife’s a Democrat, and she was so close to voting for Mitt Romney. But then, you know, Mourdock and Akin opened their mouth, and we sent [voters] running back to the Democratic Party, because they think we’re nutty.
We have the right message on the finances. We have to get out of people’s lives, get out of people’s bedrooms, and we have to be a national party…or else we’re going to lose.”
Republican Rep. Steve LaTourette of Ohio
Right now the GOP is like the car salesman trying to get you to buy the undercoating and life insurance ... you don't want it..don't need it...but they still keep trying to sell it to you anyway..
~ comment by cmsatown on Washington Post
The George W. Bush map to victory is dead. Republican candidates, donors, operatives, and activists all must start with a view of the entire country as battleground. Collectively the party simply cannot afford to write any demographic group or geographic area off anymore.
~ Vincent Harris, a Republican consultant based in Texas
The real locus of the problem is the Republican activist base and the Republican donor base. They went apocalyptic over the past four years. And that was exploited by a lot of people in the conservative world. I won't soon forget the lupine smile that played over the head of one leader of a major institution when he told me 'our donors think the apocalypse has arrived.' Republicans have been fleeced and exploited and lied to by a conservative entertainment complex....There are too many to name.
But because the followers, the donors and the activists are so mistaken about the nature of the problems that the country faces - I mean, just a simple question - I went to Tea Party rallies, and I would ask this question: "Have taxes gone up or down in the past four years?" They could not answer that question correctly.
. . . "Did we spend a trillion dollars on welfare? Is that true or false?" It is false. But it is almost universally believed. That means that the leaders have almost no space to operate.
What happened to Mitt Romney - and he could have been a really good President, really good. What happened to Mitt Romney was he was twisted into pretzels. The people who put the cement shoes on his feet are now blaming him for sinking.
~ David Frum on MSNBC's Morning Joe
Joe Scarborough: Leaders need to understand - talk radio hosts, people who write books, people that have TV shows that are ideological - it's niche marketing. A they make a lot of money. And I've got no problem with people who make a lot of money on TV or radio. In fact, I encourage it! It's good for America! But politicians need to understand - they are niche marketers. If you are driving around listening to four hours of talk radio every day, you don't live like the rest of us that work - which is fine! I've got no problem with that, but for too long people have said that if they're selling a lot of books, they must be telling us what we need to do in elections. It's too--
Mika Brzezinski: These people on the radio all day - they're leaders in your party. That's the problem.
~ MSNBC's Morning Joe
To be clear, Limbaugh doesn't speak for all Republicans -- not even close.
And he is but a small part of the GOP's demographic problem.
Still, every time a new Republican president is elected, Limbaugh gets invited to the White House. Conservative think tanks lavish him with awards. Republican politicians are eager to appear on his show, where they talk to him like an old friend. And among rank-and-file conservatives, Limbaugh is easily the most popular voice in America. Given all that, how can it possibly surprise anyone that lots of black people perceive the conservative movement as a hostile entity?
Perhaps it is actually far less hostile than they imagine. Surely you can see why many think otherwise.
Take another very popular conservative entertainer, the late Andrew Breitbart. I've spoken with him enough times to gather that he bore no personal animosity toward black people. Nevertheless, he was most famous for turning Shirley Sherrod's touching story of racial redemption into a firestorm that got her fired, all so that he could try to prove a gathering of older folks at an NAACP meeting were racist. Again, this isn't the time to argue the finer points of the matter. I'm just saying it doesn't take much to understand how the average person would perceive that.
~ Conor Friedersdorf on The Atlantic
