WatchI thought this was rather interesting: A rising star in the GOP at a major RNC convention not only said of the GOP "stop being the stupid party" but he also said:
"It’s time for a new Republican Party that talks like adults,” “We had a number of Republicans damage the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments. I’m here to say we’ve had enough of that.”
OMG. I think this is actually one of the few times I've totally agreed with a Republican politician.
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That ought-a do it, I mean what Republican doesn't like being called stupid?
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The thing is that I heard this on the radio: Many of the GOP leaders present were clapping. Obviously many agree and approve.
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edvard2 says
He's just figuring that out NOW???? Where has he been living, under a rock or in a trunk of a tree??
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Call it Crazy says
Its more a matter of the GOP not wanting to admit it. ( I can say this as a Southerner) but the GOP became the country-fried party a few decades ago whereas in the past they were more like the top-hate wearing party of the elite and powerful. Country fried isn't appetizing to many demographics except one.
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Being the stupid-party worked well for GOP from 1980 to 2008. I think they will have a hard time stopping now.
They may try harder not to LOOK like they are the stupid-party. That also worked pretty well from 1980-2008. The question is, have the public gotten any smarter in the meanwhile?
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justme says
I think the GOP's bigger problem is that they basically let right wing entertainment become their mouthpiece: A huge industry built entirely off of feeding eager listeners far-right leaning propaganda. They will need to disentangle themselves from that.
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The GOP should adopt a moderate libertarian platform. Oppose prohibition, stop the homophobia, stop the abortion bus, stop being anti science, scale back the military industrial complex, and focus on fiscal policies rooted in sound free market economics instead of religion.
They will gain all of the social issues democrats and moderates. They might lose the Evangelical vote if the democrats also change. They'll pick up a huge chunk of politically jaded non voters who have libertarian leanings.
Most importantly, intelligent Americans will actually have two legitimate choices again. Its impossible for me to even consider voting for a party full of anti science bigots.
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Kevin says
Except the liberation leaders are Ron Paul & Rand Paul!
There is nothing moderate about that Rand Paul the lunatic. He is crazier than his father.
They are bat shit crazy.
I was a Ron Paul supporter until I dug deeper and got to grips with exactly what he stands for. Ron Paul like his son are off their meds!
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Davis, CA
Jindal will be branded a RINO and relegated to the fringe just like all similar moderate elements before him.
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Vicente says
You can relegate the entire party to history if they continue to marginalize like this. They have not stopped attacking woman rights, redistricting and gerrymandering districts, infact they are getting worse as more and more of their power vanishes.
Virginia Republicans Give Blacks the Finger on MLK Day
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/01/virginia-republicans-give-blacks-finger-mlk-day
The Virginia state senate is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, 20-20. Republicans really hate this, but what can they do? Answer: wait for a Democratic state senator to be absent and jam through a mid-decade redistricting plan that switches one seat from D to R by creating a new pack-and-crack majority black district just south of Richmond. The vote was 20-19.
But wait! That's not all. The deed was done on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and at the end of the session Republicans adjourned in memory of Confederate general Stonewall Jackson, whose birthday is today.
Oh, and did I mention that the state senator who was absent is a veteran of the civil rights movement? And that he was in Washington to attend the inauguration of our country's first black president?
Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, who has obvious presidential ambitions, said he was surprised by the move, but didn't denounce it and didn't promise to veto it. Quite the contrary: his spokesman said the governor would "review it in great detail" once the bill got to his desk.
It's truly a mystery why so few African-Americans support the Republican Party, isn't it? A real chin-stroker.
GOP SCUM !
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Vicente says
Yep, I don't think his star is going to be rising much longer.
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leo707 says
Hard to say. Its fairly clear from hearing the applause during his speech that other GOP members also know that they need to change direction. If they don't, they're going to become irrelevant. This is fairly important. We do in fact need a two party system. But the GOP is currently going down a wrong path. I too would agree that if they stepped away from focusing so much on social issues and more on fiscal ones, but not parroting back the same horse shit they've been stating " No more taxes! no more taxes! Sqauwk!" they might do well with more independents.
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edvard2 says
I agree that it is hard to say, and it is possible that more moderate minds regain control of the party, but currently it is hard for me to imagine the GOP turning their back on FOX "news" and the Tea Party.
The Democrat party's leadership of today is arguably about as conservative as Regan. I could see the RINOs joining Democrats and a new "liberal" party emerging.
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The paul family is not "moderate libertarian". They're extremist libertarians who want virtually no government. That's not an attractive platform for very many people.
A moderate libertarian would accept the validity of government programs while working to minimize them.
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Kevin says
Absolutely correct
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If the reps were to run jindal/herman cain ticket in 2016, it would be an interesting matchup. All depends of course on who the dems nominate, but they would probably do no worse that mr. bain did in 2012. And if dems run hillary and whoever against jindal/cain, the reps may have a decent chance of winning assuming of course that jindal plays by the same playbook that he is speaking today.
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edvard2 says
Clapping doesn't mean squat. People clap out of politeness, or just because they are the sorts of people who have bothered to show up to an event where Jindal was speaking. Does his audience represent a cross-section of GOP voters?
Boehner said today he wants to make abortion "a relic of the past".
The GOP is run entirely by zealots these days, there's just no getting around it. Trotting out a few fringers to say "see look how moderate & reasonable we can be!" just doesn't wash.
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Unless fat, racist, middle age white guys can start breeding quicker they are done.
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That is a fair assessment.
During the last election cycle, it was just draw dropping the stuff that was coming out of their mouths:
Rick Perry - suffered from low IQ in public debate. Embarassing preparation and knowledge.
Cain/Bachmen: Each had their multiple moments of stupiness and a lot of time at each other. For what?
Romney - 47% comment and trying to relate to the poor. What the F, Can anyone be less genuine?
Overall, the performances did not reflect well on the party.
You can disagree with Obama's philosophy and politics, at least he's not going nuclear "stupid" like his competitors were.
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Moderate Infidel says
Well, the "white guys" are not really breeding quicker than many other cultures and thats regardless of whether they are progressives/liberals/conservatives/racists etc. While this choice has certain advantages from peace of mind and financial perspectives, it does have consequences one of which is that you lose political influence vs those groups that are "breeding" at a quicker pace.
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SFace says
Agreed. I sometimes wonder how closely those in charge at the RNC actually pay attention to this stuff. Some of the outright stupidity displayed was awe-inspiring. Mostly because almost all of what was mentioned to get attention was totally ridiculous except to a very small demographic of extreme right followers. The GOP needs to learn to cast a wider net next election.
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edvard2 says
That's what he wants you think. If you look more closely though, he was only suggesting greater stealth next time. He didn't say anything about admitting that their platform was fundamentally wrong. He certainly didn't say anything about apologizing. He only said they needed to keep quiet about it. Basically, instead of being the loudmouth Rush Limbaugh party, he wants them to be the furtive Larry Craig party, because it's easier to fool people if you don't talk about what you're planning to do. And their party still depends, fundamentally, on fooling people into voting against their own interests. That's why they can't jettison the religious fundamentalists. They need $$$ from crony capitalists and endorsements from preachers in order to get the votes of religious fanatics. Half of all Americans believe the earth and man were created in their current form less than 10,000 years ago, as described in Genesis; they reject evolution and geology and they would probably still believe in geocentrism if their preachers told them to. Throw in a slick TV campaign, and scare the daylights out of people with war all over the world, and you can have a winning combination at the polls, as W demonstrated in 2004.
I'd love to see a major party stand for balanced budgets, peace abroad, freedom and prosperity at home. Unfortunately, there just isn't enough patronage money or sectarian bloodlust in that platform to compete with the existing major party patronage networks.
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There were two very bad things that came up recently, first was that the House didn't pass a disaster relief package for Hurricane Sandy, second is the witch hunt for information about Benghazie.
Paul Ryan saying he would fire Clinton was a stupid comment to make to a politically savvy, connected, life long politician who has done an exhausting job as Secratary of State. That was pure grand standing, the way he does.
Republicans have a very tough row to hoe to get any traction in the next election. They need to start making positive movement rather than slogans.
"No Budget, No Pay?" That was a stupid representation of how to get things done.
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I love how the Fox Newser's kick Hillary's comment around:
Hillary: What difference would it make?
NeoCons: 4 DEAD AMERICANS!
As if whatever State said about the matter after they were dead, would make them less dead or something.
Idiots!
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SFace says
Stupidly came from the likes of Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Stephanie Cutter smear campaign of lies and misinformation... still didnt prove that Romney did anything illegal signing the SEC docs or so called Swiss Bank Accounts...
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Vicente says
No... it was about if al Qaeda was finished as Obama stated before the attack on 911 (2012) or cover up a full blown al Qaeda attach that wasnt supposed to happen.
It still is a cover up.. with no comments until AFTER the election.. Even CBS censored their interview to hide the Obama called the attach was due to the Anti Muslim YouTube video.
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thomaswong.1986 says
Can you even conceive that this theory is completely insane?
I like a good conspiracy as much as the next guy, but this is a whole new level of just stupid. A conspiracy should at least be about something REAL and meaningful, not something a large chunk of Americans couldn't give a shit about whichever way it went down.
It's piss-ant bullshit that was CORRECTED later. Let's contrast this, did Bush and Cheney admit there were never any WMD and they shouldn't have invaded Iraq? NOOOOPE! Were there any concrete major military actions that hung on the outcome of which way the State Department reported their knowledge of Benghazi? NOOOPE!
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Kevin says
The Rand Paul is also your tea party Representative
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Thedaytoday says
It will never happen. They are too extreme. So extreme infact I don't see how Rand Paul draws a salary from the Government!
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Rand Paul is also an ultra social conservative. On one hand he says keep government off our backs, on the other he wants to outlaw abortion and gay marriage. He's just a tool.
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Kevin says
His dad moved from Pennsylvania to Texas, so the acorn rolled downhill a long way from the tree. Same story with W and his parents. Not everybody in Texas is a jerk, for example Molly Ivins and Ann Richards and even Buddy Holly were all Texan, but most of the "men" get so riled up about God & Guns that they can't think about anything else. It might be even worse among some first generation Texans, who might grow up feeling a need to prove themselves "real Texans" and not closet Yankees.
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Vicente says
The Sept 11 2012 attack on benghazi was another al qaeda terrorist attack...but the Govt said it was from a anti-muslim video. so it was also said by our UN ambassador on Sunday talk shows and by our President a few weeks later on 60 minutes. It was later revealed that part of the interview was censored by 60 minutes before the 2012 elections. The president continued to ignore it was a terrorist attack even though Libyans reported it was al Qaeda..
Not a theory.. all facts captured on video ...
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Please elaborate on what difference it makes if the source of the attack was misreported during the first few weeks, before all the facts were in. Has it affected policy? Would four people still be dead? Was ANYBODY still confused about who was responsible for the attack after 3-4 weeks?
You people are really grasping at straws here. Why are you wasting your energy on something so irrelevant and petty? Its not like bad information was used to justify invading another country and spending trillions of dollars.
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thomaswong.1986 says
Who gives a rat's ass?
A bunch of GOP dimwits determined to find SOME shred of something they can use to smear shit on Obama. Attempting to turn a molehill into a mountain through willpower and bullshit.
I mean really, let's say State Dept HAD gotten things right immediately. I rarely expect this in the "fog" that immediately follows some event like this. It usually takes YEARS or NEVER for some agencies to recognize errors. But let's say they had. Now what would have changed about our lives today? Please elucidate how this event being communicated one way vs the other, resulted in some major diplomatic or military change, that would have changed the War on Terror completely. Go ahead, convince me the tragic consequences of this error and the UTOPIA we missed out on by one screwup.
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and that would mean a contradiction what obama has been saying for months...al qaeda is finished... than came another "911" surprise right before election... al qaeda not finished after all... no smear just facts..
it seems the political life of a incompetent administration would come to an end. so they did a cover up.. while all the evidence was clear as day light.. and 60 mintues the independent arm of the media gets caught censuring the most damning evidence of all.
and all Obama did was become apologist for some anti Muslim video even during the UN speech
So Vicente was the attack on benghazi over the video or a preplanned terrorist attack... which one ?
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Oh yeah, the huge cover up! Its a conspiracy! Obama would have lost the election if...something. Different?
Wtf? I don't even know what this is. They had bad information. Full stop. They got better information later and updated the official story. There were ZERO actions taken based on bad information.
This is such bullshit that it makes me happy. Republicans can't find anything legitimate to complain about, so they're wasting time grasping at straws.
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Kevin says
They could find plenty of legitimate things to complain about, but they can't propose any legitimate solutions that their coalition would tolerate. They shout about distractions to drown out any discussion of their backwards and dreadful policies. It's like Jindal's advice, except at higher volume: they can't muzzle their worst representatives, so they try to shout louder about something else, anything else, hoping nobody will notice the elephants in the room.
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" GOP needs to stop being the stupid party"
That might require a miracle that even God can't preform.
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chanakya4773 says
LOL! a dinky scratch and some go crying home to momma...
Kennedy must be disgusted at what his democratic party has become...
This certainly isnt the democratic party he once was the leader of... the new brave generation. At least he wasnt a pussy compared to some today.
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty." President John F. Kennedy - January 20, 1961
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chanakya4773 says
and that would mean even Lincoln made a bigger mistake than Bush...
else just capitulate and die... give up ! call it a day and surrender ! game over !
someone paid for your freedom.. and you cant handle it !!!