We’re going to be announcing a $10 million initiative just this year and it will include hundreds of people, paid across the country, from coast-to-coast, in Hispanic and African-American, Asian communities, talking about our party, talking about our brand, talking about what we believe in.RNC head Reince Priebus • Discussing the RNC’s efforts to improve its image amongst minorities by increasing its outreach big time. Part of the reason for doing it now, rather than during an election year, is because the party found it was playing catch-up by only focusing on such efforts in the months leading up to the election. “We have become a party that parachutes into communities four months before an election,” Priebus said. “In comparison to the other side, the Obama campaign lived in these communities for years. The relationships were deep, they were authentic.” Priebus’ comments come two days after the party suffered a black eye on the diversity front—a controversial incident at CPAC involving a white supremacist group.
A debate about which party can better manage the federal government is a very small and short-sighted debate. If our vision is not bigger than that, we do not deserve to win.Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal • In a speech he plans to give to the Republican National Committee Thursday evening, during which he will use the phrase “recalibrate the compass of conservatism.” Jindal sounds like he’s running for president in 2016, and also like he’s hoping to score an era-defining speech akin to Rush Limbaugh’s defiant bit at 2009’s CPAC. Jindal’s response to the State of the Union that year didn’t get a lot of love from anyone, but he’s otherwise proven himself to be one of the country’s best Republican governors, so it’ll be interesting to see what sort of bandwidth he gets from this speech.
If they’re not willing to say that — that’s their prerogative — but clearly they’re not Mitt Romney delegates.A national Republican Party leader • Discussing an issue with Republican delegates in Massachusetts — sixteen Ron Paul backers who defeated Mitt Romney’s picks — who were disqualified after failing to file affidavits pledging their support to Romney. The delegates say the affidavits were a ploy, and they were received the forms less than a week before the set deadline. Republican leaders are reportedly concerned that the Paul-supporting delegates may cause trouble at the Tampa convention next month. Paul has officially stopped campaigning, but his supporters hope to make their presence known at the convention.
Thanks to President Obama, taxpayer money, mostly in the form of stimulus funds, ended up in the hands of companies overseas. Instead of creating jobs in America, the stimulus and other Obama policies created jobs or sent money to Finland, New Zealand, Indonesia, India, Mexico, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, China, Denmark, South Korea, the Dominican Republic, Thailand, Vietnam, Italy, Russia, Luxembourg, El Salvador, Great Britain, Spain, Japan, and France.
How did this happen? Consider the example of Fisker Automotive. The company received $500 million in loan guarantees from the U.S. government to produce electric cars. Then they took their money and decided to produce their $100,000 electric sports cars in Finland.
President Obama’s policies may be spurring job creation in Scandinavia. But here at home, twenty-three million Americans are struggling for work. Millions of middle class families can barely make ends meet.
The RNC’s new site, ”Obamanomics Outsourced,” labels each case of reported stimulus misdeed — but, despite significant amounts of research, the site does not link to primary sources, forcing readers to either take the claims at face value or spend large amounts of time researching the claims. Guess what people are likely to do.
RNC pushes “Hype & Blame” counterslogan: We hope they change this.
» But at least Romney has Super PAC backing: While Obama more than doubled Romney’s fundraising total in March — $35 million to $12.6 million — Romney’s stayed competitive with the help of the Super PAC supporting him, Restore Our Future. Other Super PACs are helping too — the Karl Rove-backed American Crossroads, which is expected to ratchet up the Obama attack ads, raised $31.2 million in March — and the RNC’s fundraising is back on track after a fairly rough stretch under Michael Steele. One thing Romney hasn’t done this time around is put his own money into the campaign, like he did in 2008 when he threw $40 million in the pot. Think Mitt can prove formidable despite the cash deficit?
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» Romney’s heating up the fundraising, too: With the primary campaign largely over, Mitt Romney is now working together with the Republican National Committee on fundraising, and they’re starting to pick up steam — the RNC, which has had some fundraising scandals in recent years, raised $13.7 million in March, while Mitt has $72 million in cash as of the end of February. The Mittster is expected to announce his March totals later this week. As you might’ve heard, Mitt’s a tad bullish towards big-ticket donors these days.
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I wanted a brokered convention. That was one of my goals.Michael Steele • Discussing his role in the length of the current GOP primary season, and his thought process for scheduling primary contests during his time as chairman of the Republican National Committee. Steele has come under fire recently for creating a primary season that, by many accounts, appears to be benefiting President Obama far more than the Republican Party. Steele stuck by his decision-making, arguing that the longer primary season could re-engage Republican voters in states that have been largely ignored in previous contests. source (via • follow)
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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Guess which book Michael Steele thought this iconic quote was from? (Hint: Not from “A Tale of Two Cities.”) Anyway, even though he completely misattributed the quote (he said it was from his favorite book, “War and Peace”), let’s face it, that’s everything you need to know about his two years as RNC chair. Despite the immense level of success the Republican Party had in winning elections in 2009 and 2010, their current financial situation is pretty much the polar opposite of what one would expect from the party of fiscal responsibility. So, let’s take a moment to honor the RNC weirdo in his last stand, the one whose party succeeded despite his own personal failures. And the fact that he attributed this quote to the wrong book explains everything about why he won’t return. (Edit: He’s currently behind in the vote, which is taking place now … he’s not doing bad but losing support.) source
Today’s big vote: So, who’s going to be the next RNC chair?: So, much of the betting money is leaning towards this Reince Priebus guy (who we’re totally going to call Prince Riebus by accident) becoming the RNC chair. Sayonara, Michael Steele. source
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