If Republicans do not do better in the Hispanic community, in a few short years Republicans will no longer be the majority party in our state. If that happens, no Republican will ever again win the White House. New York and California are for the foreseeable future unalterably Democrat. If Texas turns bright blue, the Electoral College math is simple. We won’t be talking about Ohio, we won’t be talking about Florida or Virginia, because it won’t matter. If Texas is bright blue, you can’t get to two-seventy electoral votes. The Republican Party would cease to exist. We would become like the Whig Party.Republican Senator-Elect Ted Cruz • Discussing the GOP’s need for better outreach in Hispanic and Latino communities around the country, but particularly in his home state of Texas. The Lone Star State, and its 38 electoral college votes, remain central to the Republican Party’s presidential election strategy, and its loss could prove insurmountable for the GOP. While no one is suggesting such a flip will happen by 2016 (or even 2020), Cruz’s concerns follow similar comments made by one of former presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s own advisers last week. source
And if another Republican man says anything about rape other than it is a horrific, violent crime, I want to personally cut out his tongue. The college-age daughters of many of my friends voted for Obama because they were completely turned off by Neanderthal comments like the suggestion of “legitimate rape.Karen Hughes, former George W. Bush adviser • Voicing her frustrations with the rhetoric on rape and women’s rights from some members of her party leading up to last Tuesday. As both a woman and Republican, Hughes comes by the intensity of her disdain naturally — no less than two GOP Senate candidates in eminently winnable races, Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, had their chances derailed by high-profile, tone-deaf and offensive comments on rape and pregnancy. The Obama campaign maximized its advantage with female voters to staggering effect this cycle, beating Mitt Romney among single women by 38%. source
The problem with the Republican leaders is that they’re cowards, not that they’re fundamentally mistaken. The real locus of the problem is the Republican activist base and the Republican donor base. They went apocalyptic over the past four years, and that was exploited by a lot of people in the conservative world. I won’t soon forget the lupine smile that played over the head of one major conservative institution when he told me that our donors think the apocalypse has arrived, that Republicans have been fleeced and exploited and lied to by a conservative entertainment complex.David Frum • Offering his particular dissection of the Republican dilemma, following a deeply unsuccessful general election season, on MSNBC yesterday. Frum also spoke with conspicuous disdain of the GOP’s current slate on policy, calliing their message “no longer relevant to middle-class America.” source
My party, unfortunately, is the bastion of those people — not all of them, but most of them — who are still basing their positions on race. Let me just be candid: My party is full of racists. The real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander-in-chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin. That’s despicable.Retired Army Colonel and former aide to Colin Powell, Lawrence Wilkerson • Diving headfirst, in the most blunt terms possible, into the media dust-up kicked off last Thursday by Romney surrogate John Sununu. Responding to news that former Secretary of State Colin Powell had endorsed President Obama, Sununu suggested that Powell had a “slightly different” reason for doing it than politics – namely, his race. Sununu reversed course on this today, saying “I do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the president’s policies,” but not before Wilkerson unleashed this incendiary attack on some of his fellow Republicans. An attack which, frankly, seems destined to generate a lot more heat than it does light. source
I believe that my duty is to follow my conscience and vote what I think is in the best interest of the country, and the political risks will have to abide.Sen. Arlen Specter • On his decision to switch parties and support the Affordable Care Act, a switch he made in 2009 amidst controversy. The change cost him another term in the Senate — he lost a challenge to Rep. Joe Sestak in 2010, and Sestak lost to Pat Toomey in the general election. Specter managed to become the longest-serving senator in Pennsylvania history despite suffering numerous health problems — including two benign brain tumors in the 1990s, and two separate bouts of Hodgkin’s disease in the 2000s. Specter died of complications from non-Hodgkins lymphoma on Sunday.
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
BREAKING: Former Sen. Arlen Specter, who served Pennsylvania for three decades and notably switched parties in 2009 — paving the way for the Affordable Care Act’s passage by giving Democrats 60 votes in the Senate — has died at the age of 82.
Smart read of the morning: Author Kevin Baker, writing for The New York Times, makes a broad claim that the GOP’s biggest problem is that they’re trying to build their base without the city, despite their growing influence on American culture. “In short,” he writes, “they promise to rip and tear at the immensely complex fabric of city life while sneering at the entire ‘urban vision of dense housing and government transit.’ There is a terrible arrogance here that has ramifications well beyond the Republicans’ electoral prospects.” Now, whether you agree with that sentiment, this article is nonetheless a pretty great read, backed up by decades of historic context (the image above harkening back to “Ford to City: Drop Dead”). Great food for thought.
Mitt Romney Adopts New ‘Ronnie Ferocious’ Persona For Debates
“You know what? I’ll ask the first question,” the former Massachusetts governor said before putting out his cigarette on his forearm and flicking the butt at Lehrer. “What kind of little shit show do we have here this evening, folks? That’s my question. Because from where I’m standing, seems like a big ol’ shit show. And Lehrer, shut your fat mouth when Ronnie Ferocious is talking, or I’ll pound your goddamn face in.”
The first 45 minutes have been Mr Cool versus Mr Angry. Romney is delivering what Republicans hoped he would: a confident, aggressive approach to Obama. He has repeatedly denied outright claims by Obama from the start.
Obama has remained calm. His main line of attack is that Romnney would add $8 trillion in spending through tax cuts for the wealthy, also extend Bush era tax cuts and raising military spending. How then was Romney going to square this with cutting the deficit? Romney denied this outright.
Romney also denied he planned to cut taxes that would add $5 trillion to spending. Good comeback from Obama: Romney has been touting this tax plan for months and now five weeks before the election he has dropped it. Romney’s approach, as well as aggressive, is to patronise the president. At one point saying he has been in business for years and point Obama made no sense for anyone who knew anything about accountancy.
He gives the slight edge to Romney, for topping low expectations.
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
