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Republican consultant Alex Castellanos
We talked recently about House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's (R-Va.) rebranding initiative, which is his fourth such effort in the last four years. Apparently, he's going to have some company.
When Cantor launched his first rebranding effort in 2009, it was through an entity called the National Council for a New America. What's been largely forgotten is that it wasn't alone -- after Republicans' electoral failures in 2008, all kinds of rebranding groups popped up to also help improve the party's image.
Remember organizational powerhouses like Rebuild The Party, the Center for Republican Renewal, Renewing American Leadership, and Resurgent Republic? No? Well, that's because they all came and went fairly quickly, just as the National Council for a New America did.
As it happens, it appears history is repeating itself. In the wake of another national cycle in which the GOP struggled, Cantor has a new rebranding initiative, and once again, he's not the only one.
NewRepublican.org is the brainchild of GOP consultant and CNN pundit Alex Castellanos, whose clients have included Mitt Romney and former President George W. Bush. Castellanos is joining a growing cottage industry of Republicans who are trying to rebrand and rebuild the party as President Obama begins his second term. [...]
The group is not advocating that the GOP abandon its conservative principles; rather that the party figure out how to present them in a more modern and effective way.
How original. Cantor's office, the Heritage Foundation, and now NewRepublican.org are all pursuing the same goal at the same time, and may yet find more related groups doing the same thing.
All of these efforts have one thing in common: they're predicated on the assumption that the Republican agenda is effective and popular, and the party will thrive once they find the most persuasive words to convince Americans how great the GOP really is.
It is, after all, the whole point of rebranding: a fresh coat of paint on an unchanged product. Republicans aren't losing because they're part of a radicalized party with a failed governing vision and a narrow electoral base; they're losing because they just aren't spinning their awesomeness effectively enough.
Or so the argument goes.
To reiterate a point from a month ago, this really is misguided. Republicans have found themselves on the wrong side of the American mainstream, not because of inadequate talking points, but because most of the country likes Medicare, doesn't hate gay people, thinks the rich can afford to pay a little more in taxes, wants fewer wars, supports taking steps to prevent gun violence, and believes the government should stay out of our bedrooms and doctors' offices, among other things.
The road to electoral success is for Republicans to consider changing their policies, not their sloganeering.
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Please fix the title.
It should read:
"A lot of Kooks in the GOP's Kitchen."
Cheers!
Bravo!
A Lot of Crooks/Grifters in the Gop Kitchen
The Republicans can re-brand and find fresh young faces, like Rubio, all they want but it will never work until they bring both their rhetoric and their policys in line with reality. The pictures that Rachel showed last night of Rubio's "working class neighborhood" house shows how out of touch they are with the real "working class" in this country. The "working class" folks in my county live in mobile homes. They may be nice, new mobile homes and some are double wides, but they are mobile homes none the less. Very few go for $600,000.00+.
If that is what Rubio calls a "working class" neighborhood, than he has no more idea of what it is like to work for a living in this country than Romney does.
Here's the tune you need for an attempt to rebrand a shaky product:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovum-GjYWKQ
Yeah, you can rename the Pinto the "Thoroughbred" too, but the engine's still gonna blow up!
However, being dedicated, if unscruplous, salesman they still are dangerously good at emotional marketing and disciplined in use of their their "buzzword du jour". More's the case to begin teaching "critical thinking skills" to our children, preferably beginning in preschool!
The GOP Rebranding: Chapter 4 - Enter The Young Guns
Once again the Republicans are attempting to dress up their politics with different faces, albeit male, white faces, but younger ones this time. And once again, it just doesn't matter. The Republicans simply do not understand the times in which they live. Back in the day, the majority was white and the minority was black. Black and White. It was a simplier time - Ozzie & Harriet, Mayberry, Leave it to Beaver - everything in Black and White.
Here we are in the 21st Century. The majority is a coalition of all minority groups and quite a few of us white folks! We are progressive, inclusive and tolerant. The minority is a bunch of old white guys with a sprinkling of lunatic fringe and bought and paid for tokens (yes, I said it, tokens).
No amount of rebranding can change the reality of the GOP. They have stood against The VAWA, Equal Pay for Equal Work, Unfettered Access to Healthcare, The Right of a Woman to Control Her Reproductive Life, Early Childhood Education, Infrastructure Repair and New Builds, Research & Development, Unemployment Benefit Extensions, The American Jobs Act, Health Care Reform... to name a few.
The GOP: Out of Touch. Out of Time. And Out of Their Minds.
"It was a simpler time..." if you were white and male.
(I know what you meant. couldn't resist adding this)
Sorry. One cannot rebrand a brown paper bag of poo with a pretty gift wrap bag of poo with a nice red bow on top of it. Both are still the same thing...a bag of poo.
What is morally so reprehensible is that they KNOW their policies don't help the average American. They are simply concerned at trying to convince the average American otherwise. They are viewed as the party of the wealthy and corporate interests...because they ARE, and they have no intention of being anything else. To them, the problem is just how to spin it differently. They care about WINNING, they are addicted to WINNING at any and all costs. The gerrymandered districts and the blatant efforts to keep people from voting, the MOST FUNDAMENTAL INDIVIDUAL RIGHT WE HAVE, is all the evidence one needs to prove they care NOTHING about the most essential principles of democracy. Period.
They live in a bubble, only talk to each other, and watch Fox news. They have no clue what the American people want. No matter how many specialists they hire to reword their nonsense to make it sound better, everyone knows it's just the same crap they tried to peddle before.
It's not rebranding, it's another way to waste time and money avoiding the issues--like jobs. They're using the same old gasbag hacks so they aren't even job creators.
Reminds me of that saying (first attributed to John McCain) about putting lipstick on a pig...
Actually it was in a TV ad for a bank, investment company or another of the criminal elements IIRC.
I wish I had half the confidence that you folks have. I am afraid the re-branding may work. I live in NE Texas. These people are nuts, nuts, nuts. They don't watch anything but FOX. They don't know about the lies, the cheating, and voter suppression. They prefer to remain ignorant. I know now why Republicans hate teachers and education. The more educated the people the less they vote Republican. (Top 10 most educated states voted for Obama...bottom 10 least educated voted for Romney, with the exception of Nevada). Keep 'em ignorant and you've got another lackey for the rich. Many of the churches here do the brainwashing. The "righteous" are told to vote for the party that is against gay rights, abortion rights, etc. rather than the party that would feed the ten million hungry children in our country. They are obsessed with what goes on in the bedroom...to hell with saving our country from the greedy rich. Thanks to Martin, Chris, Al, Ed, Lawrence and the intelligent folks at MSNBC for trying to educate these dummies. Keep up the good work.
Yes, we have seen our new "Tea Party" Senator and our good ole boy Governor. What a waste of human life. The sad thing is we know how bad and dumb and greedy they are but the illiterate, mean spirited Texans far outweight the good, common sense Texans. People just don't understand what their vote means here in Texas. Most of them still have that 'I feel like I can have a drink with him' mentality. Govenor Perry just got back from going to California to try to drum up business and he could not find even one taker. He spent millions of tax payers money for nothing, just when he has signed into law taking millions away from our schools. What does that tell you about the state of Texas? For one Texas is quickly going down the crapper and Texas doesn't have enough money to pay its bills and they also want to succeed from the union. it is as if Texans have a death wish for the state and just don't have the smarts to even care?
Most Americans agree with the President's proposals he made in the State of the Union address. In fact polling shows some items like:
Raising the minimum wage
Publicly mandated and paid for pre-K
Leaving Roe v Wade in place
Not establishing national marriage standards
Bringing all the troops home regardless of whether "the mission is complete"
Making voting easier not harder
Universal background checks for all gun purchases
Closing tax loopholes as part of deficit reduction
Are all supported by at least a two to one margin.
So what's the problem?
Unfortunately we are divided into two nations. And it's not men vs. women, or white vs. non-white, or conservative vs. liberal, and certainly not left vs. right, since most of us are neither.
It's Republican primary voters vs. everyone else. You will be in sync with most voters in the general election if you support the above items. If you are a Republican running in a primary supporting one or more of these, you will lose to any opponent who doesn't. If you actually supported them all, you would be destroyed and your political career would be over. Most importantly, if you are a Republican now in the House or Senate, your chances of surviving a primary challenge are directly proportional to how passionately you support the minority position on each of these issues.
Santorum/Gingrich 2016, FTL.
After their party headliner took a drubbing in the election, the reptilicans opined that they lost because the voters didn't understand their message ... wrong! They lost because the majority of voters knew exactly what their message was.
Canter is a horse's gait, whereas, Cantor is a horse's ass.
Hmm ...
I first read the headline as "crooks" and not "cooks". Funny how they are both accurately transposable.
Umm.... Steve... the correct spelling is actually "Kooks".
Same old same old. People like Maddow make a good buck vending their s*it to the same old s*iteaters. Why does good old NBC pander to these flakes?
The best way to make a bad product fail is to market the hell out of it.
The rebranding makes more sense if you understand it as going from "The Party of Mean and Stupid Liars",, to just "The Party of Stupid Liars". At least that's what I think they are going for,, nothing to do with reality, of course.
Dribbler, I take back what I said earlier: You are a shill. You only post on a few topics, always economically related, you always use the same argument, you always have a limited but skewed set of posts to support you positions and you only show up to try and sow doubt. I'm guessing the only reason you come here is because of the high traffic.
So....how's the pay? You must be pretty desperate to do this sort of s*** for a living.
I think I have it? They will make the same ideology and practices appear to look and sound better. You can change the logo and advertising but it is still the same product. I think they are thinking, "If we try harder we can fool more people more of the time!"
GOP Great Obstructionist Party T-Party Party of Treason
Their biggest problem to date is they still haven't figured out that the Democrats WON the election last November by a landslide. The people weren't buying what they were selling and I have faith in the people. I don't think the people are going to be fooled one bit by 'rebranding'.