Republican leaders overwhelmingly voted Friday to shorten their presidential selection process in an attempt to minimize damage from GOP candidates attacking each other.
"This is a historic day for our party," RNC chairman Reince Preibus declared.
He said the changes would not allow Republicans to "slice and dice" each other for six months or participate in "a circus of debates." Republican candidates participated in 27 debates for the 2012 nomination.
You know I hate to be a Debbi Downer here, but about halfway through the nomination process in 2012, there were times that the odds on favorite was Herman Cain.
Newt Gingrich also had his time in the sun, as did Rick Santorum and Rick Perry.
It actually took some time for Romney to break from the pack.
Now ultimately he lost, as would any of the other candidates, so maybe it really doesn't matter that much WHO they chose, but still if you want to retain any credibility you want the process to last long enough to weed out the Michele Bachmann's and Ron Paul's.
Besides it's not like the GOP has learned which issues resonate with the American people, and which ones are no longer working for them.
Case in point:
Republicans believe the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is the key to keeping the House and winning the Senate in this year’s midterm elections.
Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, told reporters that, “The law stinks, and it’s a disaster. It’s not possible for this not to be the No. 1 issue in the 2014 elections.”
GOP strategists were more enthusiastic when they told the Washington Examiner that President Barack Obama’s health care law was “electoral gold.” They claim Obama’s credibility sustained considerable damage after reports of canceled policies that contravened Obama’s assurances that nothing would change for policyholders. With polls showing his job approval near record lows, the Republicans “question Obama’s ability to fully recover.”
Okay these idiots do realize that Obama is no longer running right?
And they're going to attack the Affordable Care Act that has already signed up millions of new customers, with more seeing benefits every day? Good luck with that!
Well I for one am going to miss the extended GOP primary. It was just about my favorite situation comedy of the 2012 season.
Maybe with a shorter time frame they will just pack in more gaffes, self destructive tirades, and backstabbing per debate.
Fingers crossed.
Yes, because surely the problem couldn't have been all the debate contenders standing silent while an audience cheered the suggested, in-battle death of a gay soldier.
ReplyDeleteNeither Obama nor Obamacare are popular as both have record high disapproval ratings in all the latest polls.
ReplyDeleteComing elections will be great to run against Obamacare
The ACA is law of the land and modeled after Mitt's. Get over it.
DeleteAnd yet millions of people have signed up and more people continue to do so.
DeletePresident Obama was elected TWICE by a majority and the Republicans can still not over it. They have obstructed, told untruths about our POTUS and nothing has worked!
DeleteYes, his rating are down, but it's due to the constant negative commentary put up daily by the media.
I'm delighted he is our POTUS! Think if we'd had ANY of those Republicans elected! We'd be in another war and more folks would be on the streets - poor and the middle class!
They are assholes - don't vote for ANY of them nation wide!
Amen, 1:55. :) Mine takes effect February 1.
DeleteHa - Preibus refers to it as "a circus of debates". Even he cannot take any of them seriously.
ReplyDeleteHe might have gotten rid of the circus, but he's still stuck with a party full of clowns.
DeleteThose idiots are scared to death of Hillary, period. I thought the 2012 debates would never end and, if you think about it, they're lessening them to limit the cray cray that came out during them.
ReplyDeleteAll I have to say is good luck with that, There's enough quotes and video to last a lifetime so far and it's still January,
thank you interwebs.
they attack everything but what do they OFFER? What's their alternative to any current policies? Guns, abortion, anti-gay, anti-middleclass, anti-immigration, they got nothing. Shortening the primary season will just concentrate the crazy.
ReplyDeleteGOP Platform:
DeleteMore Guns
Voter Suppression and Purge voter rolls in Red States within Swing Districts
Benghazi
Endorsements from Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Ted Nugent and Duck Fuckers
Run against straw men.
Did I mention Benghazi yet?
Bill Kristol was on Face the Nation this morning, claiming the GOP has come up with an alternative to the ACA.
DeleteFirst question: If this plan is such a great one, why didn't you offer it years ago when the ACA was first being negotiated?
Second question: How are you going to convince the millions of people who will LOSE their coverage under your wonderful plan, that it really IS a good idea?
Let's see, Bachmann is retiring under the cloud of being arrested for campaign fraud; Ron Paul will be replaced by "I'm against the Civil Rights Act" Rand; Cain will be replaced by kicked out of the Army Allen West; Mitt will be back, because Queen Ann has been whining for two years and he'll do anything to make her stop (besides, he got away with not showing any tax returns in 2012 and figures he can coast again,); Newt loves a good party and chance to pretend he is relevant anywhere but Fox; and I think the other Mormon will make another run too..you know, the one who comes off as almost sane...Huntsman? Then you have Marco and the ever-entitled Cruz also too. Gee, where are the women? Where are the minorities? Please proceed, Mr. Preibus. I predict a shellacking this fall and an outright landslide for Dems in 2016 (and so do you.)
ReplyDeleteWhy anyone would support an asshole Republican is beyond me! None of them will EVER get my vote!
ReplyDeleteAnd, the Affordable Care Act is NOT going to be dismantled! Are they friggin' continual nuts? Millions of folks are already on it. Do they really expect to receive their votes if they continue trying to screw w/the program? Jerks - each and every one of them on all levels of our government!
Thank god we have a sane one at our helm in spite of the obstruction they have put up since the first day and time he was elected POTUS. It has galled their asses that he was elected AGAIN! They just can't get over the fact a half-white and half-black guy outfoxed them AGAIN!
I saw thank you every day that I voted for President Obama both times!
Shorter season makes it more likely for a nutter to gain momentum.
ReplyDeletePalin/Trump 2016 For Serious Conservatives. (Best hair in the GOP)
DeleteThey might as well just pull names out of a hat and be done with it. Fast, simple, cheap- and about as good a chance as any for them to find "the right" candidate.
ReplyDeletehahahaha
Let Reince pull the names out of his butt. That's where he keeps the clowns.
DeleteGryphen, these primary procedural changes are all just a smokescreen for the top-secret REAL hope and change that is guaranteed to propel the GOP to presidential victory!***
ReplyDeleteMy sources tell me that in order to maintain the base AND expand their support among people of color, the symbolic cartoon party elephant will soon be rendered in a dark shade of brown instead of the traditional red, white and blue, also, too.
I am as certain as, say, Reince Priebas, that this is a recipe for electoral landslide!!!***
*** I have no idea in what year this victory will occur.
Not 2016 or 2020, surely.
Perhaps 2035?
Once again you have crystallized my thoughts, BJ.
DeleteDammit Beldar, can't you get anything right? There is NO election in 2035.
DeleteOh. Hmm. Well... maybe, just maybe -- you are right.
Again the party of extremely stupid thinks they can glide into the presidency without being vetted and without debating their policies. What rinse is saying that all of them are alike. Not an honest one among them.
ReplyDeleteThey just don't get it.
Wasn't it Sarah palin who advocated a long primary season so the candidates could be vetted? That didn't work too well, did it?
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to see a pattern! LOL
DeleteYou may as well have just informed me that the Super Bowl will be played as flag football or that this year's baseball season will include the new "call you own balls and strikes" rule. Shortening the republican debate season is like canceling The Honeymooners after the third show, it's like Leave It To Beaver without Eddie Haskell, it's like Fred Sanford being employed as a sensitivity trainer, it ought to BE ILLEGAL. We wait for four years,count 'em,four, to see the wonderful parade of characters the republicans trot out. Son Of Kong, the last one was EPIC. Jesus H. McGillicuddy, it was like watching episode after episode of SCTV, just when you thought it couldn't get any more deliriously absurd, it did. And they wanna cut this short. It's.....goddammit it's UNAMERICAN, is what it is!! I want my freedoms and whatnot and I want all of 'em!!
ReplyDelete" "... but the worse interpretation is that the leadership in the party is in fact precisely "in touch" with the culture of the party; Ken Cuccinelli did not rise to fame in a vacuum, and Mitt Romney did not distance himself from GOProud because Mitt Romney does not like gay people, but because Mitt Romney felt he could not gain the support of the Republican base if they saw him treating gay Americans with respect. The party leaders are subservient to the base, and it's the base that demands bigotry. The business wing of the party doesn't give a damn whether the party is bigoted or not, so long as the tax breaks keep coming." "
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/22/1271733/-GOProud-co-founder-gives-up-leaves-Republican-Party
The Republicans KNOW that they have to keep all their candidates away from public view - otherwise, the voting public will see them for who they really are.
ReplyDeletePerfect case in point: Sarah Palin.
She did TWO major television interviews and they yanked HER out of circulation. NO MORE INTERVIEWS, period.
The longer a Republican candidate is allowed to speak, the fewer votes that candidate will receive.
And they KNOW IT.
I think they should all "pack" and "stand their ground"........now that I would PAY to see........
ReplyDeleteGreat Idea. They're going to lose big time, so going the "speed dating" route saves money. How any sane woman and the women and men who love them can vote for the GOP is beyond me!
ReplyDeleteI think a "Jeopardy" format would be best. Either that or "Lets make a deal".
They know they have no one who has a chance to win in a fair election.
ReplyDeleteThe ACA is starting to benefit millions of people as the law's provisions go into effect. The Benghazi, IRS and Fast and Furious 'scandals' are a bust, regardless of how many times and how many ways they try to revive them. The economy is improving and the deficit is getting smaller. The middle class and poor are starting to figure out that the GOP policies consist of cutting the programs that save them from economic disaster in order to give more tax breaks to the rich. Women are finally starting to get that the Republican war on them continues at breakneck speed.
Therefore, it doesn't really matter WHICH idiot becomes the GOP candidate because they are counting on voter suppression laws and manipulated voting machines to steal the election.
Good luck with that.
"in 2012, there were times that the odds on favorite was Herman Cain."
ReplyDeleteGryphen, did you know that in a recent survey, 34% of the members of LoFoMoFo, an national alliance of proudly conservative low information voters who pledge to get all their news exclusively from Rush, Fox and GlenBeck, believe that Herb Cain IS the presdient of the United States, not including Texas and East Virginia, which they believe seceded from the US after the Civil War ended in 1965 with the Confederate victory in the Battle of Waterloo, Iowa?
Senate Republicans To Announce Plan To Take Away Healthcare from 10 Million Americans
ReplyDelete"Senate Republicans are about to propose an alternative to Obamacare that involves taking health insurance coverage away from nearly 10 million people, and replacing it with a tax credit."
https://www.politicususa.com/2014/01/26/senate-republicans-announce-plan-healthcare-10-million-americans.html
Maybe we are lucky they are only working 113 days this year before they come up with another brilliant plan.