Monday, January 05, 2009

The RNC Chair Debate   [Mark Hemingway]

I watched the RNC chairman debate on C-SPAN earlier today. While there were some very good answers given by the candidates, there were far more bad ones.

First, no one really addressed rebuilding the G.O.P. as a majority party and were more at ease playing to the base. Republicans need a detailed plan to expand the party and bring back independent voters, much like the Democrats came up with their successful fifty state strategy after 2004.

Second and on a related note, Republicans need to figure out how they're going to handle the demographic problems the party faces. Moderator Grover Noquist smartly included a question from Mario Lopez — of the Hispanic Leadership Fund — about reaching out to minorities. Yet no one really  addressed how you do the needed outreach to hispanic voters and reconcile this with immigration reform.

Lastly, technology and internet organizing were much discussed topics which is a marked improvement. However, discussing how many people follow you on Twitter or how many Facebook friends you have is not evidence you are tech savvy. No one on stage really evinced an understanding of internet organizing and technology on a conceptual level, let alone how they would employ it to rebuild the party.

To sum up, I wish the people running for RNC were either better informed or willing to be more bold in discussing obvious problems. That said, I don't think anyone on stage came off as either unaware of the extent of the problems the G.O.P. faces or afraid to admit that major overhauls of the party's image and apparatus are needed. To hear that from a room full of prominent Republicans is at least an encouraging place to start.

P.S. For more thoughts and coverage of the RNC debate, head on over to Campaign Spot.

01/05 04:02 PMShare