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View Full Version : Schwarzenegger calls for 'rebranding' GOP



82Marine89
05-18-2008, 12:13 PM
It's already happened. They've rebranded as democrats. This is what 'compassionate conservatism' has gotten us.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger created shock and awe in the Republican Party when he warned years ago that the GOP was in danger of "dying at the box office" by failing to make the sale to a wide swath of voters.

And with the presidential election looming, the Republican governor of the nation's most populous state - a decidedly blue state - has now found a chorus of agreement. The Republican "brand" - thanks to an unpopular president, a war, gas prices, foreclosures and deficit - has become such damaged goods that GOP Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia groused last week that "if we were dog food, they would take us off the shelf."

The answer for GOP presidential candidate John McCain: take a page out of the Schwarzenegger playbook and sell a product that is "counter" to the current GOP brand on issues like global warming, spending and even immigration reform.

McCain comes to the Golden State this week on a campaign and fundraising swing, including a rally Thursday in Stockton being publicized with an invitation graced by a picture of a McCain hug - not with President Bush but with Schwarzenegger.

And the governor, in an interview with The Chronicle last week, had some candid advice and observations, not only about the GOP brand - but on McCain's efforts to expand his appeal to independents and disillusioned Democrats.

"The Republican idea is a great idea, but we can't go and get stuck with just the right wing," Schwarzenegger said. "Let's let the party come all the way to the center. Let those people be heard as much as the right. Let it be the big tent we've talked about.

"Let's invade and let's cross over that (political) center," he said. "The issues that they're talking about? Let them be our issues, and let the party be known for that."
'It didn't work'

He observed that his own political opponents, including former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, tried to define him in much the way McCain is being defined by Democrats - as joined at the hip with Bush.

"It didn't work," he laughed. But "how does (McCain) beat the Democrats? By offering a better future. He needs to offer hope, he needs to go in and show he can solve the problem in Iraq and have better relations with other countries again ... and bring the economy back."

As Democrats get closer to picking their party's nominee, McCain is getting advice on his image "rebranding" from some of the same GOP insiders who helped Schwarzenegger win re-election. They include senior campaign adviser Steve Schmidt and former Schwarzenegger communications director Adam Mendelsohn, partners in a GOP political consulting firm, Mercury LLC in Sacramento.

"The Republican brand may be in a bad position because of the Bush presidency, but people recognize that John McCain is not George Bush. ... John McCain has a long track record of being a nontraditional Republican - and so does Schwarzenegger," said Mendelsohn.

That makes the Arizona senator well-positioned to build a coalition of voters that can cut into the appeal of the Democratic presidential nominee, who increasingly looks to be Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, he said.

With less than six months until the November election, McCain isn't alone in trying to repackage the GOP's image and outreach; indeed, rebranding fever appears to have caught on across the party.

It explains why, in the wake of losing a solid Republican seat in Mississippi in a special election last week, Republican leader Rep. John Boehner of Ohio sent out a memo outlining what he called a "new positive agenda" for the GOP - titled "The Change America Deserves."

Political observers watching the rebranding effort say it represents a drive to compete with Obama - whose motto is "the change we can believe in" - as he seeks independent and Latino voters who could make or break the 2008 election.

"They don't have any choice," Averell "Ace" Smith, who managed campaigns for Hillary Rodham Clinton in California, Texas and North Carolina, said of McCain's efforts to be a "counter" Republican. "If they ran any other race, they'd doom themselves from the first day.
Voters up for grabs

"(Republicans) have to move away from the status quo, because the voters up for grabs are independents and Latinos. And neither of them are particularly in love with ideologists. They both move toward moderation."

On the campaign trail last week, McCain's efforts to position himself as counter to the Republican brand were keenly evident.

He spoke in Portland on what's been described as the first leg of his global warming tour; later in the week, he delivered a landmark speech, drawing some distinct contrasts to the Bush White House - whose disapproval ratings are now a whopping 71 percent - politically as well as stylistically.

On the policy front, McCain said that by 2013, the end of his first term, he envisions most U.S. troops coming home from Iraq "in victory," as well as delivering health care and restoring "economic confidence."

And, acknowledging a White House criticized as too partisan and insular, McCain said that as president he'll ask Democrats to serve in his administration and vowed to "set a new standard for transparency and accountability. ... When we make errors, I'll confess them willingly." He vowed to institute regular presidential question-and-answer grillings before Congress, much like the British prime minister's weekly televised "Question Time."

Democrats immediately jabbed away.

"Why should McCain stop there when he could go the whole nine yards - by letting our Democratic majority in the House pick the president, just like the parliamentary system picks a prime minister?" quipped Kirsten Xanthippe, a California Democratic activist living in the United Kingdom.

"McCain isn't the real McCoy - he's just a 'prime mimicker' of conservative Bush policies, dressed up in the touchy-feely softness of sheep's clothing," she said.

Schwarzenegger disagreed.

"It was wise for him to do what he did this week," the governor said. "That's an attempt to show what his vision is. ...People need to see that there's a plan. He's in the center in a lot of ways, and that will help him - especially in states like California."

Click for full text... (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/17/MNI410LK62.DTL&tsp=1)

Psychoblues
05-18-2008, 11:25 PM
They can be re-branded as dog shit sandwiches and some folks will continue to swear by them. Never underestimate the ignorance of those that listen but will not hear.

actsnoblemartin
05-19-2008, 02:08 AM
Bullshit is bullshit by any other name is just as sweet

:coffee:


They can be re-branded as dog shit sandwiches and some folks will continue to swear by them. Never underestimate the ignorance of those that listen but will not hear.

Pale Rider
05-19-2008, 11:27 AM
I'm glad I'm no longer a republican. The party has been hijacked by fools and buffoons.

DragonStryk72
05-19-2008, 01:16 PM
Well, at least they're aware of the problem now, and are doing something about it.

theHawk
05-19-2008, 01:59 PM
The sad thing is they don't even realize that conservatism is in "the center" of world politics, with the loonbat socialists to the left, and religious extremists we are at war with to our right. Just because the American political spectrum only has the left wing liberals/socialists to the conservative center, doesn't mean conservatism is "far right".

Pale Rider
05-19-2008, 03:03 PM
Well, at least they're aware of the problem now, and are doing something about it.

"They" are the RINO's. True conservatives are abondening ship like rats, and rats are pretty tough. We'll survive. We'll just vote for a candidate that represents what we stand for, like Wayne Root, or Ron Paul.

red states rule
05-19-2008, 03:05 PM
Well, at least they're aware of the problem now, and are doing something about it.

How?

By becoming liberals? This is why Republicans lost in 2006. They walked away from what got them to the dance - Ronald Reagan conservatism

You do not beat liberals in elections by becoming liberals

mundame
05-19-2008, 03:07 PM
I'm glad I'm no longer a republican. The party has been hijacked by fools and buffoons.


Right, me too.



California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger created shock and awe in the Republican Party when he warned years ago that the GOP was in danger of "dying at the box office" by failing to make the sale to a wide swath of voters.

And with the presidential election looming, the Republican governor of the nation's most populous state - a decidedly blue state - has now found a chorus of agreement. The Republican "brand" - thanks to an unpopular president, a war, gas prices, foreclosures and deficit - has become such damaged goods that GOP Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia groused last week that "if we were dog food, they would take us off the shelf."



Peggy Noonan is saying the same thing this week in the Wall Street Journal: she thinks the Republican Party will literally die, be replaced.

Voting for Bob Barr might further that --------- we badly need a serious shakeup. For me it's a choice between not voting at all and voting Libertarian, and I'm thinking maybe send a message by voting Libertarian, that I want a new party entirely.

mundame
05-19-2008, 03:08 PM
The think is that this week's real panic among Republicans is because they just lost THREE in a row special elections to Democrats in SAFE REPUBLICAN DISTRICTS.

Okay, that really is a problem.

People are seriously, seriously fed up.

red states rule
05-19-2008, 03:10 PM
The think is that this week's real panic among Republicans is because they just lost THREE in a row special elections to Democrats in SAFE REPUBLICAN DISTRICTS.

Okay, that really is a problem.

People are seriously, seriously fed up.

Look who they lost to. "Yellow Dog" Dems who could have run on the Republican side

mundame
05-19-2008, 03:12 PM
This is why Republicans lost in 2006.


Not at all.

Republicans lost in 2006 because male Republican politicians constantly go after young boys and men in public restrooms for sex partners, and because being a Republican has come to mean locked into forever quagmire losing wars and having to pretend that's all wonderful.

And lots of other really bad things Republicans have come to stand for. A lot of us simply reregistered ----------- I was ashamed to be a Republican anymore! I don't want to be in the party of Mark Foley and Larry Craig and losing wars and illegals flooding over our totally unprotected borders and conquering our country by sheer immigration.

red states rule
05-19-2008, 03:16 PM
Not at all.

Republicans lost in 2006 because male Republican politicians constantly go after young boys and men in public restrooms for sex partners, and because being a Republican has come to mean locked into forever quagmire losing wars and having to pretend that's all wonderful.

And lots of other really bad things Republicans have come to stand for. A lot of us simply reregistered ----------- I was ashamed to be a Republican anymore! I don't want to be in the party of Mark Foley and Larry Craig and losing wars and illegals flooding over our totally unprotected borders and conquering our country by sheer immigration.

Libs have had their share of sex scandals.

What did Reopublicans run on when they won in 1994? Lower taxes, smaller government, stronger national defense - Ronal Reagan conservatism

Now Republicans are trying to be more like liberal moonbats with spending

BTW, your gal Hillary will do nothing about sanctuary cities, wants to give them drivers licenses, and in state tuition

Pale Rider
05-19-2008, 03:40 PM
Right, me too.

Peggy Noonan is saying the same thing this week in the Wall Street Journal: she thinks the Republican Party will literally die, be replaced.

Voting for Bob Barr might further that --------- we badly need a serious shakeup. For me it's a choice between not voting at all and voting Libertarian, and I'm thinking maybe send a message by voting Libertarian, that I want a new party entirely.

I do believe the time is at hand for a third party to emerge as a power, probably the Libertarian party, which more than likely is how I will vote this year.

red states rule
05-19-2008, 03:41 PM
I do believe the time is at hand for a third party to emerge as a power, probably the Libertarian party, which more than likely is how I will vote this year.

If they would get a candidate with a body temp above room temp I might do the same

mundame
05-19-2008, 03:54 PM
I do believe the time is at hand for a third party to emerge as a power, probably the Libertarian party, which more than likely is how I will vote this year.


I worry that it will put in Obama, but I HAVE been saying for a couple years that it's time to replace one of the parties (I don't actually care which one! They are both awful.) so I guess I ought to vote the way I talk.

Pale Rider
05-19-2008, 04:40 PM
I worry that it will put in Obama, but I HAVE been saying for a couple years that it's time to replace one of the parties (I don't actually care which one! They are both awful.) so I guess I ought to vote the way I talk.

Let it be bambam. Let the country suffer under his administration. The country will learn a hard lesson, and maybe NEXT time it'll be a LOT different.

mundame
05-19-2008, 04:48 PM
Let it be bambam. Let the country suffer under his administration. The country will learn a hard lesson, and maybe NEXT time it'll be a LOT different.


Pale Rider, I keep thinking Bush is Tiberius.

After him came Caligula......(that would be Obambam)

And then Nero..............

Eventually Rome entirely fell.

Pale Rider
05-19-2008, 04:50 PM
Pale Rider, I keep thinking Bush is Tiberius.

After him came Caligula......(that would be Obambam)

And then Nero..............

Eventually Rome entirely fell.

You may be right. I do believe if the country continues down the path it's on, it will fall.