REBRANDING REPUBLICANS

[L.Wood]

.

I'm certain some of us can suggest clever ways to help Republicans put a better face on a very damaged BRAND.

Republicans kick off campaign to shine party image

"Given Obama's command of Washington, it's a good idea for Republicans to take their case outside of the capital, said William Bennett, a CNN contributor and Republican strategist.

"Look, you have to face reality. Barack Obama owns Washington. The Democrats own Washington. So a good place to be is out in the country."

CNN has the story..click here.


Rush is having nothing to do with it!

Limbaugh Blows Off GOP Rebranding Effort: We Don't Need A "Listening Tour"

On Monday Rush Limbaugh became the most prominent in a series of conservative figures to push back against a new Republican re-branding effort launched by GOP luminaries over the weekend.

During his program, the brash radio personality whacked the National Council for a New America -- an effort undertaken by, among others, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, John McCain, and Eric Cantor to repair the party's image after the '08 election -- saying that rather than a "listening tour," what the party needed was "a teaching tour."




"I'm weary of the same people who drove us to this point telling us what we have to do now. I'm not including Jeb in that. Jeb was not part of the campaign last year," said Limbaugh. "But everybody else on this bus tour -- for the most part -- is responsible for where we are. We did it their way in 2008. We did it with the candidate and approach that they thought would work. Pandering. 'We got to listen to the American people.' I maintain that when a politician says we have to listen to the American people and learn, we are pandering. We're not leading."

YOU TELL'UM RUSH! Just like you did in 2006 and 2008!

[Betsy]

Go, Rush, go! Hold back your party until it's completely decimated! Take it all the way down! WOO HOO!

[Dardedar]

DAR
Today he listed those who can best articulate the conservative position: "Sarah Palin, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Sen. Rick Santorum, and Joe the Plumber." If these are their big guns, they truly are without hope. Maybe Rush is secretly a mole trying to keep the conservatives down. He certainly is a gifted rhetorician, but he uses his skills to lie and mislead people and most importantly, make them more stupid.

D.

[L.Wood]

.

He certainly is a gifted rhetorician, but he uses his skills to lie and mislead people and most importantly, make them more stupid.

Since it's likely more people see through his smoke and mirrors game than accept it as truth perhaps he is not such a gifted rhetorician after all.
Limbaugh has been broadcasting political extremism since 1985.

As Dar has demonstrated in an earlier forum his numbers or listening audience is bull shit...like his broadcasts those numbers are a fiction.

I've personally known three Rush Limbaugh fans. None of them completed high school. I knew two more who were somewhat educated and thrived on
Rush's faux populism. Both of those fellows ended up filing bankruptcy on their personal businesses. That's anecdotal I realize. But that's my experience
with Rush listeners. He plays to the frightened, fearful who are very limited in understanding of what is happening and think they have little influence.

.

[Doug]

DOUG
Limbaugh is headed for some serious job trouble. The radio network that backs his right-wing show, Clear Channel, is having trouble staying afloat.

=======================================================
The most recent blizzard of pink slips (one industry report pegged it at "nearly 1,000") came in the wake of a January purge, in which 1,850 Clear Channel employees were let go. So already this year the company has shed nearly 3,000 employees, or 12 percent of its workforce. Also, last week, Clear Channel's parent company announced it was suspending its matching contributions to employee 401(k) retirement programs.

Clear Channel, the conservative-friendly media behemoth with a soft spot for right-wing radio -- and which emerged earlier this decade as the poster child for everything that's wrong with runaway media consolidation (aka "The Evil Empire") -- is now hanging on for dear life. "It's a house of cards," radio watcher and Clear Channel expert Alec Foege recently told me, noting the company's crippling debt payments, which are due at a time when advertising revenues are vanishing. (Foege is author of 2008's Right of the Dial: The Rise of Clear Channel and the Fall of Commercial Radio.)

As The New York Times noted last week, "It is too soon to say who will be the biggest loser among media companies in this recession. But Clear Channel Communications is vying for the title."

...I wonder about Limbaugh and the thousands of his laid-off Clear Channel colleagues, because the dichotomy is striking: Last July, just months before the radio economy went into free-fall, Limbaugh's bosses at Clear Channel, who enjoy deep ties to Texas Republicans and who have been at the forefront of promoting right-wing radio, rewarded the turbo-talker with the biggest contract in terrestrial radio history. The contract included an eye-popping 40 percent raise over his already gargantuan pay, despite the fact it's doubtful any other radio competitors could have even matched Limbaugh's old pay scale.

The astronomical worth of Limbaugh's eight-year pact: $400 million. The amount of money Clear Channel execs have been trying to scrimp and save this year as they lay off thousands from the struggling company: $400 million. Ironic, don't you think?

See here.

Only Howard Stern is paid more than Limbaugh to do a radio show.

[Betsy]

Recall that Clear Channel were the ones behind the Dixie Chicks boycott, etc.

Radio is going the way of newspapers, which are going the way of the Betamax. Unfortunately, but that's the way it is. I couldn't believe it back when Clear Channel gave Rush such a big raise; now they're getting what they deserve.

[L.Wood]

.

"...Being a moderate Republican is like being a cast member of "Survivor."
Arlen Specter.

Now the DNC has some real fun with that one . Don't miss this video clip.
"21% Party ID and slipping.

.

[L.Wood]

.

Huckabee warns GOP could become 'irrelevant'

(Psst. Huck. At 21% brand identity you ARE irrelevant)

CNN-Days after national Republicans launched a new campaign to broaden the party's outreach, former upstart presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says the GOP is at risk of becoming "irrelevant as the Whigs."

In an interview with the California newspaper The Visalia Times-Delta, Huckabee said the GOP would only further decline in influence should it alienate social conservatives — largely considered the most energetic and loyal faction of the party.

"Throw the social conservatives the pro-life, pro-family people overboard and the Republican party will be as irrelevant as the Whigs," he said in reference to the American political party that largely disbanded in the mid 1800s.

"They'll basically be a party of gray-haired old men sitting around the country club puffing cigars, sipping brandy and wondering whatever happened to the country. That will be the end of the party," he said in the interview published Thursday.

Huckabee's comments come the same day former Vice President Dick Cheney warned his party's leaders not to moderate their views as they launch an effort to regain control in the nation's Capitol."

Dick Cheney is Reich-On! Don't ya think so John Galt? I do. Don't change a damn thing. You guys rock and Jesus lurves you more and more each torturing day.


(Mercy no! The Whigs-Rebranding Team omitted Huckabuck with his wide-ass and lavender tie)





"The comments come after longtime Republican Sen. Arlen Specter formally left the GOP, igniting a fierce debate among Republicans over what type of candidates the party should embrace going forward.

On Saturday, three prominent GOP leaders — Rep. Eric Cantor, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — kicked off a campaign to reshape their party's image, gathering at a restaurant in northern Virginia for the first of a series of town hall meetings. The goal of the initiative, called the National Council for a New America, is to connect Republican leaders with voters across the country to help get the party's electoral fortunes back on track.

But in the interview Thursday, Huckabee said it's too early for the GOP to look for a leader.

"I'm frustrated with all these people who are jockeying for the position to be the 'leader,'" he said. "It's almost like we're worried about who's going to be the drum major and we don't have a piece of music yet."

CNN story here.

.

[Guest]

I'm thinking JTP may actually be the mole. He is now threatening to desert the Republican Party because he is not feeling the love over their spending issues. During the C-PAC get-together, Joe apparently felt it too intensely, as evidenced by his "You're making me horny" revelation (which definitely falls under the TMI category).
Sarah Palin and her family are so delightfully white trash that they must be legitimate Pugs.
Man-on-Dog Santorum, yes, I agree that with this degree of sexual obsession, he can fully articulate the conservative position.
Rush...Well, what can I say...He almost brought the stage down at C-PAC (literally). Much enjoyed Wanda Sykes spiel about him last night.

DAR
Today he listed those who can best articulate the conservative position: "Sarah Palin, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Sen. Rick Santorum, and Joe the Plumber." If these are their big guns, they truly are without hope. Maybe Rush is secretly a mole trying to keep the conservatives down. He certainly is a gifted rhetorician, but he uses his skills to lie and mislead people and most importantly, make them more stupid.

D.

DAR
Today he listed those who can best articulate the conservative position: "Sarah Palin, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Sen. Rick Santorum, and Joe the Plumber." If these are their big guns, they truly are without hope. Maybe Rush is secretly a mole trying to keep the conservatives down. He certainly is a gifted rhetorician, but he uses his skills to lie and mislead people and most importantly, make them more stupid.

D.