Is the Republican party done?

[DinoDoc]

Do embrace more Tea Party candidates in the future?

Akin wasn't the Tea Party candidate that race.

[MRT144]

Akin wasn't the Tea Party candidate that race.

I meant to say, going forward do you think Republicans should increase, decrease or keep the same amount of Teapers as main candidates in senate and possibly presidential races.

[Alexander's Horse]

There is also the small problem of the republican party's historical but once virulent bias against catholics. The white rightwing catholics like Ben are now grudgingly accepted by the Repub grandees, because they need his vote (isn't it sad that poor Ben can't see it?). But brown Mexican catholics are probably still beyond the pale (lin) for many traditional protestant white republican supporters. That is reinforced by what most catholics hear from the pulpit, especially in poor brown and black neighbours, which certainly isn't a prosperity gospel, of which Romney was the poster boy, and I might add ultimate debunking.

[regexcellent]

I think the GOP headquarters should return to funding primary campaigns for senate so that colossal ****ups like Todd Akin can never again grace the ticket.

[DinoDoc]

I meant to say, going forward do you think Republicans should increase, decrease or keep the same amount of Teapers as main candidates in senate and possibly presidential races.

My bad. I missunderstood you. I would keep the same. I don't see them as being a large problem and in someways they are an asset. I do suggest that all future candidates for federal office be fitted with a device that kills them if they utter the word "rape" on the campaign trail again.

[Felch]

Gary Johnson was not a good candidate.

He was a successful and popular governor of a state with a large Latino population. He had an aggressive economic plan that bashed the IRS, a vote getter if there ever was one. Johnson has a decent life story, including building a successful construction business and climbing Mount Everest. Mitt Romney was a douchey little rich nerd.

[Felch]

Also Gary Johnson never signed an assault weapons ban. Seriously, **** Mitt.

[self biased]

nm

[MrFun]

Do you believe that the life of a child conceived in rape is a good thing?

I'll leave it to the woman who got pregnant from a rape, to decide for herself, whether her pregnancy is a good or not for her.

[MrFun]

Though, and lets be honest, the War on Woman theme REALLY took off after Akin's comments. Beforehand, from what I remember of polling, it seemed like most people just saw it as electioneering (Romney didn't really talk about abortion at all). However, after Akin's comments the gap grew big time. Though I could be remembering wrong.

[Dinner]

The thing that brought the Republican Party back to power after so many years of being relatively marginal was the adoption of a socially conservative platform in the '80s. I do not buy your notion at all that the "religious nonsense" results in lost votes in a country that is overwhelmingly religious. Key growing demographics are more religious than the country as a whole, for instance hispanics. So are blacks.

xpost

This election was the Republicans to lose but they lost it by babbling about legitament rape, forced vaginal probes, talking about outlawing birth control, contest appeals to racial bigotry designed to attract old white voters mostly in the south and midwest, and a bunch of other social issues such as gay marriage. The social war issues are killing them and the main reason their focus is almost exclusively on social issues is because of the religious right. That's a declining demographic and appealing to them alienates the MAJORITY of Americans and insures they won't win national elections. They will not win more national elections until the religious right is put back in the asylum instead of being allowed to drive the bus.

[regexcellent]

Saying this election was the GOP's to lose does not respect the advantage that an incumbent has merely by being an incumbent. Barack Obama was never a pushover opponent and the fact that he won by a smaller margin the second time around is noteworthy.

As much as the Republicans are focusing on the South and Midwest, the Democrats are throwing away their hopes for them. The amount of ground lost in Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina are important to consider, as well as in several midwestern states. I think we're going to see in the future the Republicans winning a lot of the Midwestern states that are now firmly in the hands of the Democrats. Midwestern states have the least racial diversity of anywhere in the country and some of the oldest populations. Their cities are smaller and more suburban, and they have a lot of populated rural areas.

The social war issues are not killing Republicans. Independents in this election were not concerned with that. People already in the Democratic column might have been energized by that. But social issues were never a focus of the presidential campaign. They were used as a distraction by Obama to fearmonger his base.

[Alexander's Horse]

The VP nominee couldn't even deliver his home state...

[Guynemer]

That is not that unusual.

Neither Al Gore nor Mitt Romney won their home states (neither of them for Romney), and they were Prez nominees.

[Ben Kenobi]

The white rightwing catholics like Ben are now grudgingly accepted by the Repub grandees, because they need his vote (isn't it sad that poor Ben can't see it?).

This is why I was heartbroken when Santorum went down. Had he come from behind again - he would have rallied all the Catholics.