Kathryn Lopez is great. CMR hearts Kathryn Lopez. On The Corner it seems she’s suggesting that a GOP that’s willing to negotiate a little more might just do the trick in future elections.
I’m on the NR Cruise, somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. We’ve had rough seas so couldn’t dock in port yesterday and won’t get off rough seas until tomorrow. Can’t help but think it’s a metaphor for something.
There were panels yesterday about that presidential election you may remember we just held. It does come up here. “Candidates matter,” is one phrase that has been repeated.
At the end of the day the candidate will take blame because it’s his campaign, but the problem runs so much deeper, even deeper than failed software. We have a confidence problem. And until we regain confidence, and go out to every audience with confidence, we’re not going to win big. That lack of confidence infects the candidate pool — leading people from a paranoid cautiousness and the obliteration of filters.
Call me crazy, this is just for the sake of discussion, but take a look at who did win: John Boehner actually does show some confidence, a consistency, and, yes, a willingness to negotiate, within parameters. And he tries to be smart about it — not picking fights simply because he’s there with the Speaker’s gavel, even if they can’t advance beyond his caucus. And his guys came back (broadly speaking). Is there something there?
Just encouraging discussion . . .
So in that spirit, let me suggest that the problem just may have been that the GOP didn’t savage Obama.
Republicans talked about jobs. Democrats talked about Mitt being a blue blood. Republicans talked about the debt. Democrats said Mitt wanted to take away your contraception.
You get the drift. They attacked Mitt. Now, it almost didn’t work because Mitt Romney is clearly a good and knowledgeable man. But it did.
Let’s look at the candidates that the GOP defeated in the past. Michael Dukakis. John Kerry. Walter Mondale. Jimmy Carter.
What is it the GOP did to them? They mocked them for being liberal weenies. They hit them hard. Over and over again. Until people just couldn’t pull the lever for them.
The GOP played this election with kid gloves on for the second time in a row. And they lost for the second time in a row.
America doesn’t seem to be a culture of grownups anymore. Pointing and laughing is may still be the best way to win people to your side on the schoolyard and in politics.
I’m not endorsing this, it’s just true. You have to make people scared to vote for the other guy.
Politics is a nasty business. This ain’t no think tank. It’s the playground for adults. It’s the prison yard. You can talk about how nasty and terrible it is but that doesn’t change what it is.
November 13, 2012 at 6:42 pm
Would not have worked, because it would be racist. You and I know it wouldn't be true, but so-what? Romney mentions he has five sons and that got transmogrified into racism.
They would have put the word up in flashing light on the MSM. We would not have been able to get away from the flashing RACIST signs.
Obviously, the media gives the wrong advice. The way to win against Obama is to actually provide an alternative. In this day and age, that means providing a candidate that the mainstream (and you) will probably think is crazy. Having principles make you stand out in a crowd, especially in a crowd of politicians and journalists.
November 13, 2012 at 7:25 pm
Or maybe the GOP didn't win because people did not like Mitt Romney. Yes, politics is a kind of game, with successful and unsuccessful strategies — but people also vote for the person they want to be president, and maybe PEOPLE DIDN'T WANT MITT ROMNEY TO BE PRESIDENT. There isn't always a winning strategy. There isn't always a "wrong move." Maybe people voted for the person they wanted and Mitt lost. And no, I have no clue at all why anyone would find Obama the better choice.
November 13, 2012 at 10:26 pm
Hey guys….MITT DID WIN. Have you even looked at the fraud reports around the country? Do a little googling on this; it's easy to find, and Joseph Farrah has a GREAT article on this. It was a dog and pony show from the start; bread and circuses for the masses….our overlords wanted this outcome, and so it is…ask yourself why no-one, NO ONE (other than the great Allen West and J. Farrah) is making a peep about the fraud? If it had been reversed, cities would be burning now. Instead, eric holder stays (and fast and furious is ignored), susan rice becomes the new secretary of state (and benghazi is swept under the rug), union thugs rise and businesses go under, etc etc etc…welcome to obamaville.
If you've never read Ann Barnhardt, start now. She's been right about everything she's said and predicted. I thought she was a little out there about the election, but it played out EXACTLY as she predicted.
This is a spiritual issue at its core, and until, and unless, we see and accept that, we will continue descending into hell…we are curently in the antechamber, and it's certainly heating up.
November 14, 2012 at 12:09 am
Um, if there is voter fraud, then where is Romney? If this fraud is a legitimate claim, then wouldn't he stand something to gain? No, he is silent, way too silent, I wonder what he stands to gain from accepting this corruption?
November 14, 2012 at 7:33 am
I think that the biggest problem is that the Catholic Vote did not vote according to Catholic principles. Somehow, saying one is Catholic has become more of a cliche rather than being a true and thoughtful belief. Those that voted in favor of the one that won have the blood of the children that have been and will continue to be aborted. Those that voted for the one that won are guilty of not taking a stance against immorality. This is a very serious matter and for all intents and purposes the confessionals should be jammed with confessors. The Catholic Church and its becoming "moderate" and "accepting" has polluted itself and our bishops and clergy are to blame. Catholics must make a stand against those things that are wrong. Catholics need to get back into church and on their knees.
November 14, 2012 at 8:34 pm
As a victim of voter suppression last Tuesday, I can't say that I suspected the Democratic party of organizing it: given that the county I live in voted for Obama in the last election. And given that there is a healthy black population in the area. On that day, just in my polling place, I counted three, yes three, attempts to keep people from voting. And as I read the notes from people around the county, I realized there were even more methods employed.
And, indeed, the assertion that religious should be MORE SAVAGE in their approach to WINNING reminds of the time that I was listening to course on the history of the Popes and heard a line that still has me gobsmacked. In defending the Papacy's hiring of professional assassins, the professor was trying to justify how the Papacy at that time was robbing, stealing, and cheating people out of their money.
The assassins cost a lot of money, he explained.
You know, sometimes religious people should just stop and hear what comes out of their mouths, or pens.