To combat the "war on women" charges Republicans are planning to assemble an army of female volunteers.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

Fresh off a week in which Democrats made clear that a key part of their midterm message will be equal pay, Republicans are set to begin their own efforts to woo women to the polls, focusing on counties that went blue in 2012 and could tip the balance in November. 

In West Virginia on Monday morning, Sharon Day, co-chairman of the Republican National Committee, will launch “14 in ’14,” a program that will focus on younger women in suburban areas that lean blue. The idea is to sign up women who will commit 30 minutes per week in the 14 weeks before the election, making calls, recruiting other women, identifying voters and getting people to the polls. 

Republicans have been dogged by criticism that their party is out of touch with women. In a CNN poll in February, 55 percent of respondents said they didn’t understand women, a figure that jumps to 64 percent among women older than 50, a group that has traditionally been more Republican. 

Day will announce the new effort in Charleston, W.Va., with Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Democrat John D. Rockefeller IV, who is retiring. 

“Women are a very important part of the electorate and the RNC is very serious about engaging,” Day said. “The Democrats have relied on desperate attacks and we are going to aggressively work to correct the record and build relationships with women voters.”

I have to remain skeptical that such a transparent ploy to seem more female friendly will work, and let's not forget that this is still the party that is aggressively fighting to control women's bodies, votes against bills demanding equal pay for women, and is working to undermine public education which allows many moms the freedom to work outside of their homes.

However I am aware that there is a certain type of woman who still relates to the policies of the GOP, though at this point I have to assume that they are either racist, nostalgic for the Republican party of yore, or are self loathing in some way.

These days a woman supporting the Republican party is not unlike gazelle's protesting for better working conditions for cheetahs.

Turning to Hollywood to get the message out about Obamacare.

Courtesy of Los Angeles Daily News:  

The health care overhaul will be getting a Hollywood rewrite. 

The California Endowment, a private foundation spending millions to promote President Barack Obama’s signature law, recently provided a $500,000 grant to ensure TV writers and producers have information about the Affordable Care Act that can be stitched into plot lines watched by millions. 

The aim is to produce compelling prime-time narratives that encourage Americans to enroll — especially the young and healthy, Hispanics and other key demographic groups needed to make the overhaul a success. 

“We know from research that when people watch entertainment television, even if they know it’s fiction, they tend to believe that the factual stuff is actually factual,” said Martin Kaplan of USC’s Norman Lear Center, which received the grant. 

The public typically gets as much, if not more, information about current events from favorite TV programs as mainstream news outlets, Kaplan said, so “people learn from these shows.”

Could this help? Well Republican strategists don;t think so, which probably means yes.

One thing for sure, it certainly cannot hurt. And SOMETHING needs to be done to out maneuver the GOP message that the ACA is a train wreck and should be repealed.

Besides if Hollywood knows anything at all, it is how to educate and entertain all at the same time. 

George Will on Mitt Romney: "You have a political problem when the voters don't like you, but you've got a REAL problem when the voters think you don't like them."

Okay so here you have George Will, Bobby Jindal, and Newt Gingrich piling on Mitt Romney for not presenting the "right message" to the voters.

What was it Newt said? "If we can't offer a better future, that is believable, to more people, we're not going to win."

In my opinion that is what the Republican party is struggling with, how to present themselves as more palatable to the American people. But the problem is that what the voters heard, that turned them off so much, was NOT a poorly packaged message.  What they heard, that turned them off so much, was the unvarnished truth.

When Mitt Romney was caught on hidden camera saying that 47% of the American people would not vote for him because they were essentially people who wanted handouts, THAT was not a poorly worded stump speech, that was a conversation with a group of like minded supporters who thought EXACTLY the same way.

When Todd Akin suggested that if a woman were the victim of "legitimate rape" that she had "ways of shutting that whole thing down" to prevent pregnancy, he was in NO WAY hesitant in making that claim. It was clearly something that he firmly believed, and that he had undoubtedly repeated numerous times around like minded individuals.

And to that point when Georgia Rep. Paul Brown claimed that science was "lies straight from the pit of Hell," he said it with the religious fervor of a man who has heard and believed those words, undoubtedly delivered from the pulpit, virtually his entire life.

These Republicans were not guilty of saying something stupid that upset their constituents and drove away voters, they are were guilty of breaking the Republican 11th Commandment, "Never Tell the Truth."

As the GOP struggles to reinvent themselves, they are really struggling to think up more attractive and digestible lies to cover for their REAL agenda. And trust me, at least when it comes to their base, they KNOW their audience.

This from The American Prospect:

Clearly, the only explanation for all this delusion is that conservative media and campaign consultants, steeped in years of confidently lying about everything from global warming to the causes of the deficit, got a little too bold about their ability to create their own realities. The only question is whether conservatives will learn their lesson and exhibit more skepticism about their self-selected news media in the future. 

The answer is almost surely no, for a very good reason: Conservative credulousness is so baked into the culture of the right that it could well be considered a defining feature. This has been true for as long as movement conservatism as we know it has existed, and there’s no real reason to think conservatives are going to sharpen up about this now.

Have you ever wondered how somebody who was caught in as many lies as Mitt Romney, and Paul Ryan, could STILL manage to pull in 47% of the vote? Simple, because lying is really of little to no consequence to the base of the Republican party. In fact they seem to prefer it, and even respect those that are good at it.

Kind of explains why, for a brief time at least, Sarah Palin was so incredibly popular doesn't it?

It seems that the only real problem faced by the GOP is the allergic reaction to bullshit demonstrated by the Independents and Democrats. You know the people who think rather than believe, who depend on logic rather than faith, and who investigate rather than digest.

So really, it is ANY wonder that they are constantly attacking the public school system? If everybody were just as open to being lied to as the Republican voters, these guys could rule like kings!

Where is the Democratic party going? That-a-way, won't you join us?

I think right now we Democrats are in the best position possible to not only hang onto the Senate but also to pick up a number of new seats in the Congress.

All around us the Republicans are self destructing, jamming their foots in their mouths, and appearing loonier than ever before.

In order for us to win, all we have to do is stay focused on our goals, keep the infighting to a minimum, and fight back against misinformation and attempts at voter suppression.

Sounds easy right? Okay, well maybe not EASY, but doable.

What do you say? Are you "Fired up" and "Ready to go?"