- Aug 4, 2009
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5 Election Day lessons for the GOP - The Week
1. The GOP has a huge Latino problem
Latino voters account for 10 percent of the electorate, and their share is growing every year, says Chris Cillizza at The Washington Post. The GOP's harsh positions on immigration helped Obama win 69 percent of Latinos' votes. Romney got just 29 percent. The GOP's "huge Hispanic problem" was the reason Florida was a tossup, and it will be enough to make once deep-red Arizona a swing state in 2016. "Texas could even be a swing state by 2020 unless Republicans" see the writing on the wall and find a way to make inroads with Latinos
2. Conservatives must soften their rhetoric on abortion
The biggest lesson "from this debacle," says Joe Battenfeld at The Boston Herald, is that the GOP needs to start winning back women. The GOP also has to shed policies that fuel charges that "the party is unfriendly toward women," and one way to do that is to "reassess their hard-line position against abortion rights." At the very least, staunchly anti-abortion Republicans need to stop pushing "the rhetorical envelope" when they talk about banning abortion, and whether there should be exceptions in cases of rape.
3. The GOP nominee has to be more aggressive
The thing that sank Mitt Romney, says William A. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection, was that "instead of playing to win, he appeared much of the time as did Paul Ryan to play not to lose." Nowhere was this more visible than in the third and final debate, "when Romney let Obama slide on Benghazi."
4. Lying doesn't work
The Romney campaign's "most shocking strategy" was acting like "winning was more important than truth," says Robert L. Cavnar at The Huffington Post. Romney "freely lied about the president, the economy, welfare reform, the auto bailout, major companies, history, and even Americans themselves. He flipped on every single social issue that he had advocated as governor of Massachusetts and stridently concealed his own tax records."
5. Republicans need to stop ripping each other apart in primaries
Republicans, says Battenfeld at The Boston Herald, must "stop engaging in ridiculous primary fights." Everybody knew from the get-go that Romney was going to be the Republican nominee. He was clearly the most electable candidate in the field. But that didn't stop "ego-driven Republicans like Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum" from viciously tearing him apart for months.
1. The GOP has a huge Latino problem
Latino voters account for 10 percent of the electorate, and their share is growing every year, says Chris Cillizza at The Washington Post. The GOP's harsh positions on immigration helped Obama win 69 percent of Latinos' votes. Romney got just 29 percent. The GOP's "huge Hispanic problem" was the reason Florida was a tossup, and it will be enough to make once deep-red Arizona a swing state in 2016. "Texas could even be a swing state by 2020 unless Republicans" see the writing on the wall and find a way to make inroads with Latinos
2. Conservatives must soften their rhetoric on abortion
The biggest lesson "from this debacle," says Joe Battenfeld at The Boston Herald, is that the GOP needs to start winning back women. The GOP also has to shed policies that fuel charges that "the party is unfriendly toward women," and one way to do that is to "reassess their hard-line position against abortion rights." At the very least, staunchly anti-abortion Republicans need to stop pushing "the rhetorical envelope" when they talk about banning abortion, and whether there should be exceptions in cases of rape.
3. The GOP nominee has to be more aggressive
The thing that sank Mitt Romney, says William A. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection, was that "instead of playing to win, he appeared much of the time as did Paul Ryan to play not to lose." Nowhere was this more visible than in the third and final debate, "when Romney let Obama slide on Benghazi."
4. Lying doesn't work
The Romney campaign's "most shocking strategy" was acting like "winning was more important than truth," says Robert L. Cavnar at The Huffington Post. Romney "freely lied about the president, the economy, welfare reform, the auto bailout, major companies, history, and even Americans themselves. He flipped on every single social issue that he had advocated as governor of Massachusetts and stridently concealed his own tax records."
5. Republicans need to stop ripping each other apart in primaries
Republicans, says Battenfeld at The Boston Herald, must "stop engaging in ridiculous primary fights." Everybody knew from the get-go that Romney was going to be the Republican nominee. He was clearly the most electable candidate in the field. But that didn't stop "ego-driven Republicans like Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum" from viciously tearing him apart for months.
