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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

From the “No …. Sherlock” file

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  November 21st, 2008 at 10:23 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

According to Gallup:

The Republican Party’s image has gone from bad to worse over the past month, as only 34% of Americans in a Nov. 13-16 Gallup Poll say they have a favorable view of the party, down from 40% in mid-October. The 61% now holding an unfavorable view of the GOP is the highest Gallup has recorded for that party since the measure was established in 1992.

and

Most rank-and-file Republicans (59%) want to see the party move in a more conservative direction and another 28% want it to remain about the same. Only 12% would prefer to see the Republican Party become less conservative.

That 12% is no doubt Republican members of Congress.

Of course, if they were to put Jeff Flake on Appropriations and Jim DeMint on Finance, they could prove me wrong about that.

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COMMENTS

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  • aaronbg

    SEE YOU NITWITS YOU ARE WRONG NOW GIVE US OUR FRIKKIN PARTY BACK HOSERS!!!!!

  • DJShay

    Wonder if it’s the us vs. them mentality that has been so prominent for the last 20 years? And it reached it’s zenith with Palin’s “real America” rhetoric and Bachmann’s “let’s hold Anti America hearings”. You can’t keep flipping off half the country and expect to get their votes.

  • Fotones_de_Akba

    Hello Erick

    I am not a registered Republican, so I respond to news stories about the future of the Rep Party with a certain amount of detachment.
    Furthermore, I have no idea whether a conservative or moderate strategy would help the Republicans improve their election chances.

    However, I do know that a healthy political dialogue in the USA needs a Conservative Republican voice that can forcefully delineate the opposition point of view to Obama programs. U.S. voters need to be educated constantly about the virtues of small government, religious liberty, the profit motive and market discipline, etc.

    The party in opposition can often exert a greater moral voice than the one in power.
    (For instance I opposed Bush’s war in Iraq from the start — and I was always glad to hear Sen Robert Byrd’s decisive voice in opposition. I thought of him yesterday, when he turned 91 years old.)

  • Jim_Tomasik

    Of course, if they were to put Jeff Flake on Appropriations and Jim DeMint on Finance, they could prove me wrong about that.

    I could not agree more.

  • Gekster

    So you have a problem with real America, or just Mrs. Palin’s real America.
    I’m just asking for you to be clear so I can understand.

  • bk

    But wait a second – isn’t the disapproval for the Democratic-controlled Congress way worse than that?

  • Achance

    I guess it is illustrative to see what a bunch of morons think. I’m really about done with what little faith I ever had in democracy, at least so long as the threshold for the franchise is the ability to fog a mirror.

    O’Reilly had some sample questions off the citizenship test given to those seeking to become naturalized citizens. I think being able to pass that test might be a good standard for being able to register to vote.

  • ColbyS

    “More Conservative” vs “Less Conservative” I guess depends on which issues you are willing to tweak. Those are very general descriptions.

    When I hear “more conservative” I generally think moving back to fiscal conservatism to recapture the Reagan coalition. I think the modern GOP has done a good job keeping Defense policy old school and of course has taken some ground on social conservatism when possible.

    Of course I have my own little adjustments that I would make to modernize the party, but I’m sure everyone else has a couple as well and we probably couldn’t agree on which tweaks to make so the best course is to simply hold the line on issues.

    In any case, like everyone is saying we need to get the fiscal conservatism mantle back in its rightful place on the GOP.

  • IJB

    GOP numbers will fall while Obama’s rise. And that will continue to be the case until about, oh, February of 2009.

    At that point, Obama’s numbers are very likely to stop rising. Coincidentally, the GOP’s numbers will stop falling then.

    IOW, get back to me with the poll results on the GOP in about July 2009. I can guarantee people will be singing a different tune then.

  • ColbyS

    With the blue team basically having unimpeded control of the federal government for a couple of years, expectations are going to be unrealistically high and set up for nothing but disappointment when Obama fails to deliver fairy tale change.

    The dems will surely sour in the public eye over the next 1-2 years, the question is how much damage will they be able to do before the public fires them.

  • Gekster

    My first question about this poll, and something they almost never tell you, is who did they ask?

    If I ask only people in the Chicago ghetto, 100, 1000, 1999, then I think I’ll get a favorable rating for the Democrats.

    If I do the same for a town in northern Texas, then I think I’ll get the opposite response.

    Good term for the pollsters to say is “a majority of Americans think.”
    It may make you feel like its what all Americans want, as say Americans on an island, or Americans in the mountains, or Americans in the desert.

    They don’t tell you the majority of what Americans.

    I’m not trying to say don’t believe any polls,
    just be skeptical of them.

    I would still like to know how the pollsters can ask as low as 5oo people questions, and then tell every one what 330 million American people think and feel?

  • Achance

    So, in the first hundred days they’ll do everything in their wish list of institutional changes to make it nigh on to impossible for the public to fire them, e.g., card check, Fairness Doctrine, national police and fire bargaining with interest arbitration, etc.

  • DJShay

    no “real” or “fake” America. People in big cities are just as American as people that live in a small town or farm or the “heartland” or whatever. We’re all Americans. Period.

  • 1SGinTN

    And for the record, accident of birth does not truly define “American”. I work in a city, so I get to observe a wide range of behavior, intellect, and mind-set. Many of my ‘opposite’ would be just as happy in another country as long as it didn’t affect their material possessions.

  • jcheney

    However, with an 11% approval rating for the Congress, they still managed to increase their numbers in the election.

    So much for numbers and approval ratings.

  • aceintx

    Get used to it…I suppose you’d have rather had Tim, “We need to ‘modernize’” Pawlenty as McCains VP Pick?

  • aceintx

    It was one of my biggest complaints about Ensign and Cole and the same ole same ole current minority leader Beohner that they didn’t have the sense GOD gave a goose and run against the Democrat Congress with the worse approval ratings in American History!

    It’s their job to educate the electorate as to what we believe, what we would do in that majority and point out the mess the Democrats have made of our Congress!

  • jeffweimer

    This “my America” and “not my America” has been practiced across the political spectrum:

    http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/386617_patrioticsales06.html

    I find it cute that NOW people are feeling “American”. They certainly didn’t the last 8 years.

    *So don’t throw stones in glass houses. *It didn’t reach it’s zenith this year – it happened in the last 8 years, and the left took every opportunity to point it out. There was only short-lived support for OUR president, and only because of a colossal tragedy. After that, it was every chance taken to tear him down. belittle him (even overseas – shameful), and DO ITS BEST to make sure the reality matched the rhetoric about how bad they thought America was.

  • Dave_in_Fla

    just like Coke did after the new coke fiasco. But if you stay silent and don’t fight the perception war, you will lose. Mac has killed Microsoft Vista with the mac/pc commercials. Branding and PR works, why the RNC feels the need to ignore brand managment is beyond me.

  • Patricia_C

    In the wake of crushing defeats for Republicans in last week’s national elections, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger said Sunday that his party should regroup by moving away from some of its core conservative principles and embracing spending on programs that Americans want.

    So, according to Ahhhnold, the best way for Republicans to regain dignity and respect among those who are frustrated by our leader’s efforts to move center/reach across the isle/compromise/ wimp out/give in/join in on the Nanny State Parade… is to completely abandon the core conservative principles, which USE to define our party and become even MORE like the liberal democrats…

    Schwarzenegger, a social moderate, long ago earned the enmity of many California Republicans who believe he abandoned some of the fiscally conservative views he espoused when running for office five years ago. They cite, for instance, his failed plan to dramatically expand health insurance in the state.

    Maybe Ahhhnold doesn’t get the part where Republicans are voting his sort out of office BECAUSE they are abandoning those “fiscally conservative views”…

    Oh… and while he’s out bashing Republicans for those silly, unfashionable “fiscally conservative views”… he put in his own emergency request to the Treasury Department asking for $7 billion in federal loans.

    Yeah, Ahhnold… “Let’s go and . . . fund programs… and not get stuck just on the fiscal responsibility.”

    Arnold use to make a living pretending to be a machine, disguised as a man, programmed to kill humans.
    Now-a-days he makes a living as a liberal machine disguised as a Republican, programmed to kill conservative values…

    Either way, his acting stinks.

    Hasta La Vista, baby.

  • ColoKid

    with making the oft-quoted observation that democracy is the worst of all forms of government, except for all the other forms. Less oft-quoted is his observation that the biggest argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter. :o ) The man had a way with words.

  • Gekster

    A test before voting wont do it I fear.

    Remember that only citizens can vote.

    And an immigrant has to know and understand the American English language in order to become a citizen.

    If we are beholden to our laws, then why do we have bi-lingual ballots.

    Some people will and do ignore the laws they don’t like.

  • bc3

    The GOP has several problems:

    First, in 2008 the GOP in general and John McCain had no central message.

    Secondly, the GOP and conservatives need to go on the offense against the media. In 2008 MSM didn’t even make any pretense of being unbiased. Gov. Palin felt the brunt of the media’s assult. Conservatives must do more to destroy the media’s credibility, starting, not during the next election, when it will look like we’re whining. We know MSM hates us and will do whatever it feels necessary to destroy us. We have tried playing nice. It hasn’t worked.

    Thirdly, we need to act like conservatives by controling spending, enacting stronger border security, eliminating earmarks and adhering to a conservative agenda. Bush, particularly in his second term, and a GOP concress that turned its back on the contract with America.

    Until we make these changes, we will continue to be the minority party.

  • formercon

    This woman is an empty suit with lipstick. She can’t even say what the hell she reads….
    The GOP MUST divorce itself from the EXTREME right and the focus on the family crap. Americans do not want someone telling them what to do in their own homes. Get back to policy, NOT “family values”

  • formercon

    …because they haven’t impeached this president.

  • Jaded

    and a whole slew of other 50 and under GOP stars are the new face of the GOP….

    Let me just say idiots such as yourself talking about “hard right and focus on the family stuff” and getting rid of them make fools of yourself so go back from whatever hole you crawled out of because you obviously have no knowledge of what the Republican Party stands for and who will be the face of the party….TROLL!

  • Moe_Lane

    SecDef Robert Gates.

    SecHS Janet Napolitano.

    NSA Gen. James Jones, USMC (ret.)

    CIA Director John Brennan.

    God, are you going to absolutely loathe the next four years.

    Now scram. The Democrats need you to gather up more money for them.

    Moe

    PS: Blam.

  • 2006_personoftheyear
  • exitsfunnel

    Congressional approval ratings are at 11% but the problem for the GOP is that 60% of the electorate thinks that they still control the congress.

    -exits

  • Moe_Lane

    I don’t care if we have to get a giant laser from somewhere and burn an update on the surface of the moon.

  • buckeye

    Sort of like an act of weather, or a fire. No evil doers, not an act of war or violence, just at “tragedy”.

    Oh, am I being one of those divisive types?

  • buckeye

    No thanks Arnold! The future of the Republican party is in part fiscal conservatism and cleaning up the financial mess you, other moderate Republicans and the Democrats have made.

    It’s why John Kasich will be the next governor of Ohio and Republicans like him are our future, not your bankrupt self.

  • buckeye

    This is still a center right country. Even with McCain’s inept campaign, our lousy brand and the unpopularity of the incumbent, The One only raked in 52% of the vote. If 52% is their high water mark they don’t have much room for error.

    The country still believes in a strong defense, lower and limited taxes and personal responsibility. The latter is why so many opposed the first bailout and oppose an automaker bailout.

    GOP Strategy:

    1. Better messenger now that the administration is gone. God love the President, but this wasn’t his strong suite. Once Karen Hughes left, the message was gone. With Romney, Huck, Sanford, Jindal, yes Palin (in time once her Alaska approval rating is still 80% and the Dems are sinking) and others we can craft a positive message of a better direction rooted in opportunity, economic freedom and strength.

    2. Be the outside the beltway party. With Obama stocking his administration with Dem Congress critters, Clinton retreads and other known party hacks he’ll lose the change crowd that wanted to throw the Washington insider political class out of power, and that’s a lot of people, swing voters. There’s a reason why he’s the first sitting Senator since Kennedy to win and people are more sour on Washington now than they were then.

    3. Lead on the economy through fiscal restraint and lower taxes. The states are as big of a mess as Washington through years of spend happy moderate Republicans and Democrats. People do not want taxes raised to fix it. They want spending controlled.

    4. Be more surgical in tax policy. We have to stand for more than just lower taxes. We need to stand for the tax cuts that resonate and explain them. When there’s a capital hole in the economy it’s a capital gains tax cut that’s needed and will as always pay for itself. Push a very large child income tax credit for only those that pay income tax (the real tax credit). It’s a capital gains tax cut for those raising the next generation of human capital, not a lifestyle tax cut.

    5. National Security will come back to us and unfortunately for bad reasons.

    6. This one may be risky but become the anti-union party with the right tact. We’ve been tiptoeing around the UAW, AFL-CIO, Teamsters and others for years hoping for the endorsements Reagan received. It’s time to give that up. They’re all as bit as much of the Left as ACORN and aren’t in play, and their members that vote for our side anyhow are their to retain. They know it’s the union destroying their company and our economy, which is where the tact comes in. Not only fight card check, but fight to make the automakers go through bankruptcy to get the unrealistic union benefits off their back. Stand up against someone making $75/hr when the competition pays only $45/hr and that’s more than most Americans make. Highlight the unfairness and perversion of union pay.

    7. Finally, we need to fix the Hispanic vote and the road to it runs through Catholics and economic opportunity. Number six has a lot to do with this the latter. Unions are job protection rackets that hit Hispanics looking for economic opportunity and a better life the hardest. The former has everything to do with abortion and the remaining social conservative issues. The Catholic Church is going to get more aggressive about abortion during the Obama administration as the Freedom of Choice Act passes and tax money flows. The GOP needs to lead the way along with economic opportunity for all. Doing so will begin bringing Hispanic votes back to the GOP.

    All of this needs to be in a positive tone and message. There was only one Reagan but we can do the shining city on the hill and economic opportunity, strong defense and strong families part again in a positive manner. We’ll have something to contrast it to for the next two years.

  • aceintx

    You had your turn in 2006 and 2008…you lost…so get lost!