MIAMI, Nov. 12, 2008
GOP Governors See Bleak Future For Party
Washington Post: After Election Losses, Republican Governors Try To Plan For The Future At Meeting In Florida
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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin arrives at the 2008 Republican Governors Association meeting in Miami, Fla., Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008. (AP)
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Gov. Haley Barbour, left, of Mississippi, and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, participate in Miami Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008, for their annual Republican Governors Association Conference. (AP)
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End Of The Trail
John McCain graciously concedes defeat in the presidential election.
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Republican governors were the brightest spot in an otherwise dispiriting election last week for the GOP, but the chief executives gathered here Wednesday provided a gloomy assessment of their party's failures and a dark forecast for the future.
The Republican Party is ill situated to serve a changing America, they said. Members make excuses for corruption. The Bush administration and congressional leaders are fiscally irresponsible and have ceded the tax issue -- of all issues -- to the Democrats. Large swaths of the country are off limits to GOP candidates. Republicans have lost the technology advantage, and if they were part of a corporation, "heads would roll." It's going to be worse in 2010.
The Republican Governors Association, meeting at a sleek hotel on Biscayne Bay to survey the damage, itself is a thinned version of what it was in the heyday of GOP dominance of national politics. There will be 21 GOP governors come January, a loss of one, and only 16 of them made the trip.
They are convinced that their counterparts in Washington are incapable of finding a formula for resurgence and that the answer lies in the states.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty -- passed over by Sen. John McCain for the No. 2 spot on the presidential ticket and one of nine GOP governors who preside over states won by Barack Obama -- offered a summary of his party's predicament at the governors' opening lunch.
"We cannot be a majority governing party when we essentially cannot compete in the Northeast, we are losing our ability to compete in Great Lakes states, we cannot compete on the West Coast, we are increasingly in danger of competing in the mid-Atlantic states, and the Democrats are now winning some of the Western states," Pawlenty said. "That is not a formula for being a majority governing party in this nation."
As if that weren't enough, he ticked off a few more challenges.
"Similarly we cannot compete, and prevail, as a majority governing party if we have a significant deficit, as we do, with women, where we have a large deficit with Hispanics, where we have a large deficit with African American voters, where we have a large deficit with people of modest incomes and modest financial circumstances. Those are not factors that make up a formula for success going forward."
Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, at 37 the youngest of the group, was more succinct: "They fired us with cause." He was referring to the loss of at least six senators and more than 20 House members, the first time since 1932 that the party has lost so many seats in consecutive elections.
A phrase heard repeatedly in the hallways was that the next Republican president -- and there are plenty who would like the job -- was in the room, or at least in the hotel. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate and the most well-known attendee, skipped the lunch to do a sit-down with CNN and was last seen surrounded three-deep by reporters and cameras before disappearing into an elevator.
She is scheduled to hold a news conference Thursday morning and then give an analysis in a session titled "Looking Towards the Future."
It is likely to be a more upbeat affair than the seminar she missed, "An In-Depth Evaluation of the 2008 Election Cycle."
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who took over the Republican National Committee under similarly dim circumstances after President Bill Clinton's 1992 election, tried to temper the downbeat assessments with some history.
He pointed out that only once since World War II has a party won a third consecutive presidential term. He noted President Bush's unpopularity and the "financial system's cataclysm" and said, all things considered, he thought McCain "got a pretty good vote." He noted the dark days that followed Watergate. "I have looked down at the grave of the Republican Party, and this ain't it," he said.
Others noted that after Clinton's victory in 1992, Republicans took control of Congress in 1994.
That, however, was about it for happy talk.
Pollster and communications guru Frank Luntz detailed the party's problems with voters 18 to 29 years old and said Obama's campaign was far ahead of McCain's in using new media to reach those voters.
"He's got 10 million e-mail names," Luntz said of Obama. He then held up a BlackBerry and added: "Our candidate doesn't know how to use this."
Jindal, an Indian American and one of the party's brightest hopes for ethnic outreach, said Republicans have failed to inspire. "We should stand for the American dream," he said.
He blamed the administration and congressional leaders for cutting taxes without cutting spending and for not offering solutions besides "the other side's worse," and he said the party must "stop making excuses for corruption." He named Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who has been convicted of unlawfully accepting gifts but whose reelection race is very tight.
Gov. Dave Heineman of Nebraska was ready to take Jindal up on the challenge. "I think he ought to resign today," Heineman said of Stevens, and asked his fellow governors if they wanted to make a similar statement. "Do we have the courage to do that?"
There was silence at the table.
Criticism came from others as well. Former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman, a close McCain adviser, said, "Republicans are losing market share at an alarming rate," mentioning young voters and Hispanics as particular concerns. If there were such losses at a corporation, she said, "heads would roll."
Although some polling at the end of the campaign suggested Palin was a drag on the ticket, her fellow governors treated any question about her gingerly. They praised her for energizing the base, and moved quickly to extol Obama's speechmaking skills and his extraordinary fundraising advantage.
As for the way back, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said the governors have a chance to show how to apply Republican principles of fiscal conservatism and smaller government to practical problems. He said they should concentrate on "issues that really matter" to voters, such as education, energy, the environment and health care.
Pawlenty said that although Republicans idolize Ronald Reagan, some would balk at the compromises he made. "One of the things that gets glossed over is his pragmatism," he said. "He got stuff done, and he compromised to do it."
Research editor Alice Crites in Washington contributed to this report.
By Robert Barnes
© 2008 The Washington Post Company
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See all 57 CommentsThis bleak Future was written,directed,produced by the Republican Party.
You are going down boys!!
So far they have determined that the creation of Fear, Providing lip service only to morality issues, legislating with greed first and offering nothing but apathy to the have-nots in America was not enough to sustain their control and power.
They have decided that it was a mistake to vocalize their support of conservative ideology such as small government, fiscal responsibility, and a strong domestic economy while doing the opposite to a degree that caused everyone (even the Democrats) to shake their heads.
Well, Duh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lets hope these clowns don''''t learn their lesson and remain the minority party for a long time.
Posted by gop_will_Win
God is firmly in the GOP corner as well. Democrats make Jesus cry.
Maybe republicans should have stop the smear campign and actually stayed on the issues.
maybe getting cozy with evangelicans and the religous right is a mistake. I''m not voting for evangelican beleifs therefore I can never vote for republicnas.
maybe allowing neo-con thinking to rule the party was a big mistake.
maybe realizing trickle down economics only rewards the wealthy and screws the foundation of this country which is the middle class worker..
anyone who voted for Bush once needs to look themselves in the mirror and realize that it was you who caused this mess.... Yes you !!!
It was reported that one governor was heard stating,"The bright spot, is we no longer need to use a P.A. system at the January meeting at the Waffle House." The governors refused to disclose the location the Waffle House in Florida.
I fail to see what Palin can do for this country, her idealogies are whacked
IT IS A SIGN OF BACKWARDNESS, USING OLD CANNED IDEAS AND REJECTING FRESH AND REFRESHING IDEAS IN A FAST CHANGING ERA OF COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION AND SCIENCE.
THEY ARE STIL BUGGED DOWN WITH RELIGIOUS IDEALOGICAL HANG UP WHICH THEY HAVE USED IN THE PAST AS A TOOL TO FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE SOME OF THE TIMES.
THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IS NOT TO PREACH AND TEACH RELIGION AND ETHICS DERVIVED FROM IT. THIS MATTER SHOULD BE LEFT TO THE PREACHERS ON THE ALTERS IN THE HOUSE OF WOSHIPS. THE GOVENMENTS OBJECTIVE AND ROLE SHOULD BE BETTERMENT OF PEOPLES LIVES IN THE SOCIETY, ECONOMICALLY AND ADMINISTRATIVELY.
JUST LET US TAKE A LOOK AT THE ISSUE OF ABORTION;
IT SHOULD BE A MATTER OF PRIVATE CHOICE. THE CLERGY OF A GIVEN RELIGION CAN TEACH AND PREACH THEIR MEMBERS AGAINST IT AND TELL THEM THAT IT IS SINFUL OR UNGODLY OR WHATEVER.
BUT THEY, THE RELIGIOUL IDEOLOGS, CANNOT FORCE THEIR BELIEF ON THE OTHERS BY LEGISLATING RELIGION. NOBODY IS ADVOCATING ABORTION , THAT IS THE WAY IT SHOULD BE. THE PHRASE "PRO-CHOICE" IS NOT EQUIVALENT TO ABORTION ADVOCACY BUT IT REPRESENTS A NUTRAL POSITION AND LEAVING THE MATTER TO WOMEN AND FAMILIES.
FOR REPUBLICANS TO GET BACK INTO COMPETITION, THEY SHOULD REWRITE THEIR SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY, GET OUT OF THE BUSINESS OF SELLING GOD OR TO BE ON THE SIDE OF THOSE WHO ARE SELLING GOD.
1 -- prove that the GOP is fiscally conseravtive; this is going to be hard to prove since GWB.
2 -- realize that the demographics of the country are changing; to survive the GOP can not remain the all-white party.
3 -- seperate church and state; encourage religeon but keep it out of GOP politics.
Propaganda Machine--
The Rovian Goebbell''s style Nonsense
They spewed about Obama Being a Terrorist-
Socialist-Muslim
Only works on the Dumb a$$ Red Hicks
The Younger people and Educated won''t buy
That BULL SH__
Character Assassination, and Stereotypes-
are Nazi tools for fools.
The Mostly white GOP doomed itself
By false innuendo and Religious Hypocrites
New Party Slogan should be:
White People In glass Houses Shouldn''t throw stones
And I''m white!!!!
Unlike all your others, This post hits too close to the truth to pisss off many.
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Posted by mytoosense
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Looks like your wrong liberal. You can apologise later.
"exactly what do you think the gop will win?".
Your answer was not very accurate .... so what
do you think they will win now????????
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Posted by cbs3200
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We did win liberal. We won. Just think about it.
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Don''t forget with intelligent people!
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Yes, I''m sure God was cheering as W. invaded a country illegally killing over a hundred thousand and McCain sang "Bomb bomb bomb...Iran".
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Posted by gop_will_win at 11:42 AM : Nov 13, 2008
+ report abuse
This is your first post that actually makes sense and is true. I told my wife during this election process that I didn''t understand why my Dems would want the White House with the *** mess W has left it in. Obama and the Dems will never be able to clean up this mess in 4 years and therefore will take the blame in 2012. So you are correct, you all did win that aspect.
Some of you are right, the Repubs seem to pander to the religious right. However, we seldon set laws that restrict freedom based on those beliefs. The worst we do is refuse to use government money for acts that violate a large portion of the countries opinions.
But also consider this. The Dems pander just as much to the unemployed welfare class and with promises to "the workers" that they will penalize the very companies that the workers have built. Meanwhile, the biggest threat to our living is the large, modern factories being built in Asia.
Who will represent the middle class worker who just wants to live free, earn his way with honest work, and send his kids to college? Certainly not a tax and spend government. Will the Dems build that for you?
Watch as this new administration gives you health care like medicare, tax breaks like welfare, reduces your factory capacity even further, and possibly threatens your security with a reduced world awareness.
Then ask, "who is going to take care of the middle class?"
Buh-Bye, old guard...
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Posted by billster68 at 11:36 AM : Nov 13, 2008
Great post, right on.
But I dont think Bush is as dumb or lazy as people think. I think he is a very poor communicator and chooses to avoid the public instead of stumbling his words. Doesnt matter, the party has failed under his leadership.
I also think it will rise again. America cant stand many years of a tax and spend government. A government that grows bigger than the businesses that support it (yeah, personal taxes only support one third of the US budget, the rest comes from our businesses, the ones we work for) and then threatens to micromanage those businesses.
So, we need two parties. An eagle needs two wings to fly. But the repubs have to quit preaching religion and the Dems have to quit preacing welfare.
And how exactly did you win?
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Posted by DJ_IL
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Well life is like a dinner party at a country club. The rich people come in and eat and then afterwards they leave and the poor people come in and clean up the mess.
"exactly what do you think the gop will win?".
Your answer was not very accurate .... so what
do you think they will win now????????
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Posted by cbs3200
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We did win liberal. We won. Just think about it.
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Posted by gop_will_win
Bad Christian ! Bad Christian !
Now go back in your corner.
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Posted by noloyalisti at 12:08 PM : Nov 13, 2008
Your name calling and slander helps no one except maybe makes you feel better. But, it definitely decreases most peoples opinon of you.
The election is over. Drop the slogans and use your brain before it atrophies.
Right now, the bleakest thing for the GOP is that their best future hope for the White House is Sarah Palin - the female equivalent of Homer Simpson. But I don''t see that being the case in 4 or 8 years. I expect to see a lot of people emerge as future presidential elections approach, and that''s a good thing for the GOP. Sarah Palin won''t carry the party anywhere. The good news for the GOP is that I don''t think she''ll stand a chance in the primaries against some of the talent the party still possess, and will develop over the next 3 or so years. The GOP''s dead only if they don''t try to get back up, and I don''t see that happening. They''ll be back. Maybe not in 2012, but by 2016, and that''s not all that far away. Hopefully by then they will have a much improved platform.
Pandering to the religious right just to garner votes would be especially galling to these enlightened "separation of church and state" men.
They have badly lost their way....
Posted by gop_will_win
And bless the availability of cheap labor willing to come to this country and work for half price! Thanks to them and our generous guest worker programs, we only have to pay those people $2 an hour instead of the five that a citizen might ask for.
The American people will figure out that LIEBAMA made campaign promises that he cannot keep and the Republican Party will jump all over that void.
Enjoy now because history tells us that the winds will shift.
Obama has not yet even been SWORN IN and they are trotting out "Jindal" for 2012...so much for UNITING the PARTIES and WORKING T0GETHER for the next 4 years...you pieces of ***!!!
Right now, the bleakest thing for the GOP is that their best future hope for the White House is Sarah Palin - ...
They''''ll be back. Maybe not in 2012, but by 2016, and that''''s not all that far away. Hopefully by then they will have a much improved platform.
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Posted by omded at 12:13 PM : Nov 13, 2008
You are right, the GOP will be back. We need them too. I hope they are back by 2010 because this congress doesnt impress me or many other americans either. It has an even lower rating than Bush.
I dont agree with your assesment of Sarah Palin but time will tell. I think what we have seen so far was someone so new to the scene she had very little political skills and the media coverage was so biased we still dont know what she has to offer. I think her image is further blurred by her obvious "country" or "midwest" personality contrasted with the feminist movement we have been programmed to expect.
Lets wait and see. I wont praise her but I will defend her until we have a real chance to see what she can do.
Loud mouth hypocrites with an unwed teenage daughters should tend to their own problems.
Obama is savvy enough to simply "dismiss her". I have.
Of course thats why they shifted to the democrats. The fact that you call him a LIAR really proves how immature you are. But again I suppose you have the right to voice an opinion. We will see how Obama turns out, If he turns out bad, the GOP will win in 2012, if he turns our good, you won''''t stand a chance.
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Posted by DJ_IL at 12:33 PM : Nov 13, 2008
IF HE TURNS OUT GOOD I WILL VOTE FOR HIM.
But Im not optomistic. He has the rhetoric and charisma of John Kennedy but lacks the Kennedy "machine" backing him. He has the social urges of Johnson and Carter. He has the advisors and potential cabinet of Clinton.
But, he either lies or changes his mind without admitting it. He has refrained from taking a position too many times and has been essentially silent since the election. the ultra liberals are already dogging him to do their bidding. His first visit with a head of state (Bush) was a disaster of leaked information with unknown credibility (I doubt very much that Bush or his staff would successfully leak to the New York Times).
But I hope he gets ready to lead really fast and does such a great job that even I want to vote for him in 2012.
Also, we should thank the media for being our "eyes and ears" during this Presidential Election. Just as they did during the Katrina Disaster, they SHOWED us the injustice and we REACTED.
4 years of BO is going to put the country back in the mood for electing someone authentic. Before his administation is over we''re going to be fed up with learning all the ways he conned us.
Posted by Machineguy
Are you serious...follow the money trail...he beat McCain down by out spending him 7 to 1!!! Wall Street backed him (yes...inspite of a melt down...LOTS of money poured in from Wall Street...curious, huh?), Hollywood backed him, foreign donations backed him, and more than anything else....Oprah backed him Kennedy had a fraction of the financial support. With that kind of money...you buy a better machine!! What he needs to worry about his keeping all this money in love with him....which could get sticky considering all the promises he made to get it.
So you don''''t think the democrats are ever helpful to this country. Why are the historians saying the opposite. Why didn''''t bush use executive power to stop the loss of jobs and help save 1.2 million jobs. Had he done that McCain would have been elected. The sheer fact that 1.2 Million people have lost their Jobs really looks bad
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Posted by DJ_IL at 12:41 PM : Nov 13, 2008
I believe the Democrats have done good things for our country. But I also think they have done some serious harm from time to time. Im not sure which historians you are refering to because I dont find any that are so forthcoming as you represent. Further, I find historians that are rewriting events that I lived through (Iran is now claiming the holocost never happened). So, I dont put much stock in a generic "historian". Maybe a specific reference would be better to debate with. Like, Dr King was a Repub. So was Lincoln. Nixon was a crook but ended the Vietnam war.
I dont believe a president can stop the loss of jobs with an executive order. Maybe you can explain that to me. But, as a repub, I am skeptical of any government that tries to run its citizens businesses. History is full of those failures. I can site specifics.
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Posted by ConDumbistan at 12:35 PM : Nov 13, 2008
Its easy. We see degenerate posts like this one as representative of our competition. Name calling and slander without reason only detracts further from the image of those you represent.
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Posted by likeitis5050 at 12:50 PM : Nov 13, 2008
Yes I am serious but in 1500 words I was unable to be clear. Most of us believe JFK was a success. I think he achieved success because the experienced Kennedy/Democrat machine (mostly his father) helped him with executive decisions. He was able to fail at the Bay of Pigs, practice out right Nepotism (Bobby was Attorney General), and carry on a public affair with Marilyn Monroe.
Obama has a powerful election machine but so far has not shown executive skills (they botched his visit with Bush). Even if Obama has good advice, its not clear to me he will heed it. He often seems to me to be as stubborn as Bush II.
Posted by ertyui4
Actually in Great Britain unemployment''s only 5.9%. Also, now the $''s back up gas is only around $6 per gallon.
Advice to the GOP:
1. Stop trying to own Jesus. Most of us prefer Jesus to be left out of the political arena.
2. No more trying to divide America into ''real America'' and the rest of America. Got news for you - IT''S ALL REAL AMERICA.
3. Tone down the drawl and swagger. It''s cute for a cartoon character, not a national political party.
4. Rush has never been right. Encouraging your base to listen to rable-rousers and stone-throwers like Rush and Bill O''Reily only further dumb-down your base and make them out of touch with what''s really going on in America.
5. Quit taking the opposite side of every initiative the Democrats support. You''ve allowed them to push you on the oppostive side of many issues the people support the Dems on.
6. Joe-the-plumber, Joe-six-pack, NASCAR dad, security moms, and hockey moms are not the people most of us want running the country. We need skilled people with the education and experience to govern.
I wish the GOP real luck in finding their soul.
Wow! For a group of people (Southerners) that brag about how patroitic they are and how much they love America, it''s posts like this that remind the rest of us that they may profess to love America but they hate the majority of Americans. FromTexwLove, thank you for proving what a group of ignorant and hatefilled people the majority of you down South are. By the way, the Civil War, it ended 143 years ago and you lost!!! Don''t you think it''s time for you guys to grow-up, get over it, and join the rest of us who are living in the 21st century. You can''t really call yourselves patriot if you are still flying the rebel flag that was meant to destroy the good ol'' USA.
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