How the GOP can beat Obama in 2012 and how they're blowing it

[Wonky Pundit]

This piece does a pretty good job of summing up the winning formula for unseating an incumbent. It also does a good job of showing how Republicans are screwing the pooch.

As Texas Sen. Phil Gramm phrased it on the campaign trail in 1996 to a struggling Republican House challenger, "There are only two issues when running against an incumbent. Her record, and I'm not a kook."

So the Republican playbook for 2012 should follow a simple plan:

1) Focus on the president's record.
2) Do not allow the militant wing of the party to bind the whole party to election-losing issues.
3) Keep the kooks off the main stage.

And yet this simple plan is proving surprisingly hard to execute.

Look at the issues the House GOP has decided to showcase this summer:

A) A budget plan that would gradually withdraw Medicare coverage from everyone younger than 55...

B) A threat to force a default on the obligations of the United States by August unless the president yields on point A.

In other words, Republicans are in danger of violating point 2 of the incumbent-defeating plan.

Meanwhile, the conservative entertainment complex seems bent on trashing point 3. So far this year, Fox News and talk radio have pushed Donald Trump and Michele Bachmann as top-tier presidential candidates. Now they are trying the same for Herman Cain, while lovingly publicizing Sarah Palin's donation-seeking bus tour.

Yes the American media always loves a freak show. But a political party does not have to cooperate.

Source

Personally, I'd be very surprised if someone other than a kook gets the nomination next year.

 

[Avorysuds]

Dumb article... The Main Stream media loves picking 2 guys that are pretty much the same IE Obama/McCain and now maybe Obama/Mitt.

We need a good/great leader not a Republican winning for the sake of winning.

 

[Wonky Pundit]

Dumb article... The Main Stream media loves picking 2 guys that are pretty much the same IE Obama/McCain and now maybe Obama/Mitt.

We need a good/great leader not a Republican winning for the sake of winning.

Yeah, but do you honestly think a GOP that's this dysfunctional will ever nominate a good/great leader?

 

[Avorysuds]

Dumb article... The Main Stream media loves picking 2 guys that are pretty much the same IE Obama/McCain and now maybe Obama/Mitt.

We need a good/great leader not a Republican winning for the sake of winning.

Yeah, but do you honestly think a GOP that's this dysfunctional will ever nominate a good/great leader?

I dono, that’s why we have the primaries. With who is running currently I see no reason someone like Ron Paul can’t win. Sure atm it seems like a small chance but really Newts splitting votes from Mitt and people for the most part don’t like Mitt… And there is no one else that means shit in the running other than HCain, who seems to be destroying himself..


Anything is possible, but backing Mitt is fucking retarded.

 

[Avorysuds]

Really we need to wait for the primaries.

 

[Wonky Pundit]

The Tea Party wing of the GOP, along with the hard core right, probably think that Ron Paul is too liberal. I don't envision them coming to his camp.

Unless you've seen something I haven't.

 

[Avorysuds]

The Tea Party wing of the GOP, along with the hard core right, probably think that Ron Paul is too liberal. I don't envision them coming to his camp.

Unless you've seen something I haven't.

Ron Paul is considered the "Father" of the Tea party... He polls among or the highest in near every poll looking at who the TPM supports. Anyways, no matter who runs for president on either side, Dem or Rep, people will think they are either to hardcore or that they are to weak, yet they will still vote for them.

Obama has very little support currently, yet most Dems will vote for him. See what I mean?

 

[Wonky Pundit]

The Tea Party wing of the GOP, along with the hard core right, probably think that Ron Paul is too liberal. I don't envision them coming to his camp.

Unless you've seen something I haven't.

Ron Paul is considered the "Father" of the Tea party... He polls among or the highest in near every poll looking at who the TPM supports. Anyways, no matter who runs for president on either side, Dem or Rep, people will think they are either to hardcore or that they are to weak, yet they will still vote for them.

Obama has very little support currently, yet most Dems will vote for him. See what I mean?

I agree with that. Only it's not the loyal Dems or the loyal Repubs who carry a candidate in a presidential election: it's the swing vote. Swing voters hardly ever vote for someone who looks too hard core on either side.

 

[GeoLaureate8]

The Tea Party wing of the GOP, along with the hard core right, probably think that Ron Paul is too liberal. I don't envision them coming to his camp.

Unless you've seen something I haven't.

Ron Paul too Liberal? You've gotta be joking. As dumb as the Tea Party can be, I don't think any of them believe that a guy who wants to get rid of nearly all social programs, federal departments, abolish IRS, and cut spending, is someone who is too Liberal.


.

 

[Wonky Pundit]

The Tea Party wing of the GOP, along with the hard core right, probably think that Ron Paul is too liberal. I don't envision them coming to his camp.

Unless you've seen something I haven't.

Ron Paul too Liberal? You've gotta be joking. As dumb as the Tea Party can be, I don't think any of them believe that a guy who wants to get rid of nearly all social programs, federal departments, abolish IRS, and cut spending, is someone who is too Liberal.


.

I wish I were joking, but there are now huge numbers of people on the right who believe that, if you depart from any of their views to any degree, you are automatically a liberal.

Some of them probably think RP is a liberal just because he doesn't hate homosexuals enough.

 

[Seawytch]

The Tea Party wing of the GOP, along with the hard core right, probably think that Ron Paul is too liberal. I don't envision them coming to his camp.

Unless you've seen something I haven't.

Ron Paul too Liberal? You've gotta be joking. As dumb as the Tea Party can be, I don't think any of them believe that a guy who wants to get rid of nearly all social programs, federal departments, abolish IRS, and cut spending, is someone who is too Liberal.


.

I wish I were joking, but there are now huge numbers of people on the right who believe that, if you depart from any of their views to any degree, you are automatically a liberal.

Some of them probably think RP is a liberal just because he doesn't hate homosexuals enough.

Probably has something to do with his stance on the illegal war...

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Ron Paul raised almost a million dollars yesterday.