Is history repeating itself? Is the GOP following the Whigs?

[Xiahou]

And McCain and Romney lost because they were old white men whose talking points "evolved" to meet the needs of the fringe lunatics as the primaries progressed. Very transparent tools of a very select political minority. That's what the Republicans need to stop doing.

It's fairly well documented that Romney lost because the base stayed home.

Read the article, it's pretty obvious that you didn't even click on it.

[a completely inoffensive name]

GO ahead and nominate a "true conservative" I will eagerly await the election results.

[Ironside]

It's fairly well documented that Romney lost because the base stayed home.

Read the article, it's pretty obvious that you didn't even click on it.

As long as the GOP nominates someone plausible, they start off with 46 percent of the vote and a large chunk of the electoral college.

One flaw is about that plausible. And another is that they will have counter reactions. Appeal to the "true conservatives", and the Democrats gets a bonus (the 2012 voter turnout was very high for US standards and not because Obama was super popular) and you'll also start to lose the Republicans that doesn't like those "true conservatives".

[Xiahou]

I read the Article. Its full of wishful thinking. When it comes to the Romney campaign there is hardly anything that was fairly well documented. Everyone got everything wrong, but now all of a sudden Republicans have a crystal ball to look at? And it says the same crap they were saying in 2012!? Yeeeaah lemme know how that works out in 2016.

Wishful thinking on the part of who? Marc Ambinder isn't a GOP flack, last I checked.

Democrats are going to vote for the Democrat nominee- there's not much helping that. At best, the GOP can convince some Dems that their nominee is so awful that some of them stay home.

Exit polls showed Romney winning independents in 2012, but that didn't save him. The GOP is in a tough spot demographically. They need to turn out every conservative voter they can if they hope to win. You're not going to do that by running to the center.

By the way, I knew you didn't read the article because I realized a couple hours after I posted it that the link was broken (since fixed).

[Beskar]

They need to turn out every conservative voter they can if they hope to win. You're not going to do that by running to the center.

"You are not going to get every conservative voter by being in a position which all conservatives can agree on, you will have to go to the loony extreme!"

Recipe for massive fail...

[Seamus Fermanagh]

I think it is a mistake to assume that conservatism and its values no longer appeal to the American electorate. Most of us are still imbued with those values, raised to view the USA as something special, and to seek something better for our future and the future of our children.

Since Reagan, far too many of the conservatives have been small minded and mean. Being the party of "Hell no!" is not an agenda and a hope for the future and too readily degenerates into picayune obstructionism.

Conservatism cannot be about who we were. It must be about who we are and who we dare to become. I don't hear that from Paul, or Cruz, or Palin, or Christie, or Jeb Bush, or Bachmann. Reagan's magic was that he did NOT dwell in the past despite being, in many cases, the oldest fellow in the room when he spoke. Until the GOP truly comes to embody a vision of what the future should be -- and not just what we believe it shouldn't be -- we can expect the same results we've enjoyed of late.

I generally think the Dems are headed in the wrong direction, and they have their share of small minded would-be leaders as well, but some of them have vision and a sense of "becoming." At times, some of them can inspire.

I have seen any number of GOP leaders who I find admirable. It has been some time since I was inspired.

[Lemur]

Exit polls showed Romney winning independents in 2012, but that didn't save him.

True fact, but more importantly, he didn't win indies by much (5 points is the most generous reading). Certainly not enough to change the outcome. Same phenomenon with Kerry, who won indies by 1%, which was nowhere near the margin he needed to win.

From an article on this exact subject:

[V]oter's choice to identify as an Independent can change by the day. Republicans who were disenchanted with Romney might have been more apt to identify as Independent, as Democrats were in 2004 when they were dissatisfied with Kerry.

In 2012, a much more reliable indicator of success — and a better example of the "swing" vote — came from voters who identified as "moderate." In every critical battleground state, Obama won the moderate vote. In Iowa, he captured more than 60% of it. Overall, Obama beat Romney by 15 points among moderates.

Most of us are still imbued with those values, raised to view the USA as something special, and to seek something better for our future and the future of our children.

These seem like common American values, and not particular to the right wing. American conservatism has its particularities and defining features that set it apart, but love of country and belief in a better future are not among them. (Clarification: I believe those two values are pretty much universal among most all Americans, including rightwingers.)

GO ahead and nominate a "true conservative" I will eagerly await the election results.

Cruz/Palin 2016 would be amazing.

[Pannonian]

These seem like common American values, and not particular to the right wing. Declaring that centrists and lefties do not believe these things is normal Fox News-style rhetoric, but I don't see that reflected in anything resembling reality. American conservatism has its particularities and defining features that set it apart, but love of country and belief in a better future are not among them.

It's one of the peculiarities of British politics that old-school socialists and Tories got on well together, despite their class differences and political opposition, as they both fundamentally believed in duty to the underprivileged, and only disagreed on the degree and how to do so. It was Thatcherism that made an ideology of prizing the individual over the society, and both socialists and Tories detested her. Although, in retrospect, we can see that Thatcherism routed all other political ideologies. I wonder if US politics will similarly see two seemingly opposite parties routed by a radical third political ideology.

[Xiahou]

The Tea Party is unique in American politics in that everyone hates them.

The tea party has lower unfavorable ratings than Obama.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

The tea party has lower unfavorable ratings than Obama.

I'm thinking of a bad old joke about one leper bragging to the other about having more fingers......