After two weeks of schmoozing in Miami bars and on the last days of the campaign trail with deflated Republicans, our correspondent dishes on exactly how low morale has sunk.
PLUS: Read Q&As with rising Republican stars Mike Pence and Tim Pawlenty.
Don't ask, "Whither the GOP?" Ask, "Where are they not?" Post-election saw Republicans out en masse if not in force or in charge: on talk shows, cruises, at conferences, and more. And they were ready to talk. Here are some insights I've gathered from my talks in hotel bars, airport tarmacs, and anonymous chat rooms. Not really that last one.
1. Sarah Palin's performance in the waning days of the campaign—and especially at the Republican Governors Association conference—should put to rest the myth that her rhetorical skills are good or that they are even hers. (The base has McCain speechwriter Matthew Scully to thank for them.) As one Republican operative put it in an email to me shortly after Palin wrapped up at the RGA, "Who wrote that? Todd?" The lack of warmth other governors seemed to feel for Palin was just as surprising. Mostly confined to under the surface, the annoyance briefly crackled into view at the end of her bizarre presser, when Texas Governor Rick Perry overruled Palin's decision to end the event by calling on CNN's Dana Bash himself. Other than that, the governors and attendees kept criticism of Palin—which, to be fair, might stem somewhat from jealousy—off the record. One elected official, asked if he might have conducted himself differently had he gotten the VP pick, simply rolled his eyes, adding, sarcastically: "Oh, maybe."
While the party as a whole has yet to come up with a coherent argument for why they lost, speakers at the conference were almost unanimous in blaming "the culture of Washington" for corrupting Republican representatives.
2. Republicans like guns. At RGA's closing event—winkingly called "The State Dinner"—Perry, stepping down as the group leader, got a shotgun. As did other departing governors. Because that's what Republicans giving up power need: phallic symbols to take home and caress and remind them of what it was like when people did what they said. Bush will need several. Perhaps this is what accounts for reports of a national uptick in gun sales—it certainly makes more sense than the paranoid delusion that Obama will take them away.
3. The divide within the Republican Party is not so much "social conservatives" versus "social moderates" or even "big government conservatives" versus "fiscal conservatives." It is state-level Republicans versus federal officials. While the party as a whole has yet to come up with a coherent argument for why they lost, speakers at the conference were almost unanimous in blaming "the culture of Washington" for corrupting Republican representatives. Perry told the crowd that the behavior of "D.C. types" (who stayed unnamed most of the time) had caused voters to "lose confidence" in Republicans. This argument was often contrasted to the relative success GOP governors had on Election Day—no governor running for re-election lost. But congressional Republicans are quick to point out that the demands of a state-level job are dramatically different than theirs. "None of them had to vote on the war," pointed out one consultant at the conference, who has worked primarily on federal races. "You can avoid a lot of social [policy] issues." And it's true that the brightest stars of the Republican governors' field, including Tim Pawlenty and Charlie Crist, have earned their reputations by staying focused on what one might call the "deliverables" of state government: making sure residents get the services they need, whether it's education, energy, or a driver's license. (South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford got a round of applause when it was announced he had helped cut wait times at state DMVs from an average of 66 minutes to 15.)
4. Young Republicans are eager for a changing of the guard. Republicans under 40, steeled for a loss for months, breathed a quiet sigh of relief when McCain's immediate post-election actions (sending his security detail home, immediately disbanding his informal brain trust) seemed to indicate that he had no interest in being the public face of the party going forward. (One might argue that he had little interest in being the public face of the party as its nominee.) The prospect of new faces to fill that roll has generated whatever excitement there is on the R side of the aisle. "It's kind of a blank slate," said one conference attendee. "We could do anything." In fact, this observer believes the party has to groom new personalities BEFORE it gets to the business of figuring out its new message or its new agenda: "How do you get people to listen to a message if you don't have a messenger?" As for who the new messengers might be, one consultant at the conference, Patrick Ruffini, emphasized quantity over quality: "We need five or six Sarah Palins and five or six Bobby Jindals," he said, explaining: "The media is going to tear them down as fast as we can build them up. If we send enough of them out, some will be left standing" by 2012.
5. It doesn't matter if the race for 2012 has actually started or not, reporters will cover events like this as if it has. And you thought 2008 was a long election cycle! Tying up their laces, if not actually mounting the starting blocks are Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) and Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-MN). I took them through some warm-up laps with a couple of quick interviews.
Read the Pence and Pawlenty Q&As.
Wonkette emerita, political junkie, self-hating journalist and author of Dog Days, Ana Marie Cox has worked for Time, Mother Jones, Suck, and most recently, Radar. Follow her on Twitter.
Tracy Quan's latest novel is Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl, set in Provence and praised in The Nation as a "deft account of occupational rigors and anxieties before the crash." Tracy's debut, Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, and the sequel, Diary of a Married Call Girl, are international bestsellers. A regular columnist for The Guardian, she has written for many publications including Cosmopolitan, The Financial Times, and The New York Times.
Joe Mathews is a journalist, an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and a contributing writer at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as Justice Department reporter for the Wall Street Journal and as a city desk reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He is the author of The People’s Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy.
Gerald Posner is the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism (www.posner.com). Posner lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner.
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Renata Espinosa is the New York editor of Fashion Wire Daily. She is also the co-founder of impressionistic fashion and art blog TheNuNu and a sometimes backup dancer for "The Anna Copa Cabanna Show."
Amanda Fortini has written for The New Yorker, Slate, Elle, and New York, among other publications. She lives in Los Angeles.
Wonkette emerita, political junkie, self-hating journalist, and author of Dog Days. She has worked for Time, Mother Jones, Suck, and most recently, Radar. Follow her on Twitter.
Wonkette emerita, political junkie, self-hating journalist, and author of Dog Days. She has worked for Time, Mother Jones, Suck, and most recently, Radar. Follow her on Twitter.
Wonkette emerita, political junkie, self-hating journalist, and author of Dog Days. She has worked for Time, Mother Jones, Suck, and most recently, Radar. Follow her on Twitter.
Wonkette emerita, political junkie, self-hating journalist, and author of Dog Days. She has worked for Time, Mother Jones, Suck, and most recently, Radar. Follow her on Twitter.
Re: "Perhaps this is what accounts for reports of a national uptick in gun sales-it certainly makes more sense than the paranoid delusion that Obama will take them away." The Gun Control vs Second Amendment Rights battle reflects a cultural war. The Republicans know that President Obama has a voting history on gun control that will alienate millions of voters. When the Gun Control movement was embraced by President Clinton (The Assault Weapons Ban) in 1994, the Democratic candidates suffered in the election that year and lost control of Congress. This set the stage for all of the Gingrich/Delay corruption that followed. I would hope that Ms Cox and those that don't understand or support the Second Amendment remember that history has a way of repeating itself.
He is called "The Todd" and be careful, Sarah's taken names for her next vendettas!
This isn't reporting... I don't even know what this besides bad 'journalism'; I don't care if you're republican or not:
"Because that's what Republicans giving up power need: phallic symbols to take home and caress and remind them of what it was like when people did what they said."
maybe gun fans bought guns now while they could still afford them.
As a lifelong Liberal Democrat it was refreshing to see the Republican party, back on its heels, grasping at straws with the choice of Sarah Palin for Veep and the one-note chorus of Blame Bush to explain its 11/4 defeat.
Now, if they maintain this stance and let the party fall completely into the hands of the Christian Conservatives, they will only matter in the Deep South and Appalachia and thereby guarantee Democratic hegemony for 20 years, as happened during & after our last Depression. Looks possible if not entirely likely.
Some might think that the intelligent people of America just got fed up with being treated as idiots. It gives one hope that the majority no longer aspire to belong to a "cow-eyed" group.
An interesting post, thanks. As an admitted liberal and a Texan, I've been watching local gun sales skyrocket with some interest as well. However, whack jobs and survivalists aside; I don't think most of these would-be armory owners fueling this run on gun and pawn shops are all that much different from most of my neighbors and co-workers. They not loons (albeit Republicans) or particularly penile challenged, they just really, really like guns. It's seems likely to me that Obama's election, in my simply provided them with the perfect rationalization for buying every gun left on the mental wish list they've been adding to since they were teens. If Detroit could persuade President-Elect Obama to publicly consider banning all recently built 2 door domestic V8's with really bitchen' wheels and a kick-ass sound system, the need for an automotive bailout would magically disappear.
"The prospect of new faces to fill that roll..." Um, Ana Marie, unless they're filling a dim sum roll, the word you're looking for is "role."
I'll give you a coherent argument for why the GOP lost the election. 1. McCain. 2. McCain was overwhelmingly voted in by Democrats in open primaries. 3. McCain isn't really a Republican. 4. Mitt Romney was the ONLY choice, especially given the current economic failures. Who better? 5. Sarah Palin was a gimmick that failed.
Obama and the socialist Democrats are going to grind the country into the ground. It's already beginning with the auto industry bailout. Bad move, bad, bad move.
The Republican "poddy" is a dead issue. There really isn't a republican or democrat party. Everyone claims they don't vote party, and one third are registered independent.
Once up on a time there was real diff rinse. But a simple study shows that neither stands for anything. The party out of office is generally for a balanced budget, blah blah blah and the party in power will squander bucks all over the place with an eye to re election.
Ask the so-called leaders to state their party principles. duh The two parties are both fund raising shells. That is all, and the demos don't have a hold on Barky Obama, either, as he created his own operation, separate from the party.
I support the two party system. One party should be registered voters and the other unregistered, with the unregistered in charge of running the elections.
With one party and "factions" our country would save a ton of money as all the two political party featherbedding from the towns and cities on up would disappear.
I was a write-in candidate and I didn't win and I am very depressed. I am not conceding until the Electoral Congress meets.
Oh! The automobile prob limb. My program, actually a rehash from my save the American automobile industry plan circa my first write-in campaign, 1980.
We need a national auto-lottery. With much fanfare we need special auto-lotto tickets available nationwide where ever lottery tickets are sold, sort of like a raffle at a church picnic.
Every 40,000 tickets sold = one Chevrolet Volt, taxes and dealer fees included. The vehicles would be distributed through the dealers and a commission on the sale would be divided amongst the sales force.
With the right kind of lotto publicity - ads on TV featuring Barky Obama, etc, we would / should raise minimum 20 million a week net for the cars.
A two dollar ticket would qualify for the car of your choice, but you have to take possession. Selling the vehicle would call for a flat 25% gains tax.
Two bucks the vehicle you always wanted one buck a Chev Volt. The overwhelming majority of winners would be people who were not intending, or in today's e con oh me able to afford a new car. With my non-partisan program the recession won't kill our automobile industry. I am sure millions of people would purchase tickets every week, and wait for the Volt.
I should write an essay about this and I might, but I am very busy this week working on my Order to Show Cause why all the Networks a shouldn't have their licenses REVOKED for not allowing me any access.
michaelslevinson dot commie
so,evanrm -
you think the proposed auto industry bailout is the only example worth mentioning of "socialists grinding the country into the ground?" I guess you're a banker.
Thank you.
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