Looks like the superpacs have joined the republican civil war. Bitter primary fights with outside money should do wonders for your cause. Please proceed.

Philip Francis Queeg: They aren't addressing the core problem with their primary system.

[www.csmonitor.com image 600x400]

No amount of tweaking is going to help when this is the quality of candidate available to choose from.

It's not the Primary process itself.

The leadership had very little hope of taking Obama in this election. They knew this going in. Bachmann knew that she had no hope in 10,000 Hells or Seven Heavens of getting the nod this year. Nor in 2016 for that matter. What all of those folks did realize is that there was a LOT of money to be made this election season. With books, with PACs, with fundraisers, with rallies, and it was about fleecing the rubes for as much as they could bear, and in order to keep up their spirits--and their wallets and pocketbooks open. For all the Sturm und Drang, and all the frenzied rhetoric, the leadership was more than fairly certain that whoever got the nod would lose. But, that didn't stop the opportunists and folks from moving cash around to the right folks after begging the rubes for MOAR cash.

Johnson and Huntsman were the only credible candidates on the field, and by credible, I mean relatively sane. Romney was a sacrificial lamb, but he has been a veteran campaigner. Not necessarily a successful one, but he knew how to pay folks back, to get something on the back end, after the election. He moved a lot of cash around to the right folks. On advisers. On staff. On ads. On books. His entire career has been being a poster child, who slides cash to the right folks, with himself as a target. From before the Olympics even. He knows how to grease the right palms once he gets into a position, and he is really good at making sure that folks get taken care of. As a candidate he made sure that a LOT of cash went to the right folks. He kept up ad revenue for Fox. He kept the wheels greased for dozens of websites. He hired a lot of folks and made sure that they got paid. He served a purpose. Not to win. Cripes, I don't think that anyone in the GOP really wanted the Presidency with as much crap to clean up from their last go around, but when you have founded your base on mouth breathers, you have to give them something to hope for. You have to give them a target for ire, because if you don't, then they might begin asking questions, and the wrong kind.

The field this last go around wasn't about winning. Not in the least. It was about fleecing the rubes for as much as possible, because at this point, that is really all the TEA Party is good for. They are good for rage cash, and in order to stoke that, you need folks who will stand as symbols. Bachmann. Paul. Newt. All fairly impossible tickets, but then again, folks play the lotto with similar odds, and that is really what it was about: cashing in on folks who want to believe.

Romney himself, I doubt really wanted to win. Not after his tenure as Governor. Not with all the eyes looking straight at him, and actually listening to what he would say. That is far more scrutiny than he is comfortable with. He did want to be a good soldier and slide cash to the folks who will pad out his retirement though. He did want the accolades for a while, and then when he failed, he could point to the "underhanded tactics" that cost his election, and slide back into a boardroom, surfeit and complete with the knowledge that he would make his cash back, and pride assuaged. Winning would be a catastrophe for the GOP right now. It would mean actually tackling the problems that their policies had caused, and with a full light upon them on how to accomplish the vocal goals that they've announced. And no one in the party wants that. Right now, they are reactionaries and radicals, and that requires something to rage against. In order to look like they're doing something, as opposed to doing something useful--because folks have a fairly good idea of what is necessary, but no one wants to be the ones to tell the American public that they're going to take the tough steps to do that. Instead, they are banking on being dragged to the table, and eventually they will capitulate in order to keep the nation afloat--they just don't want to do it too willingly, because they've bet the farm on being the ones to stand up against the very strategies needed.

Dimensio: President Obama has proven himself to be a generally competent leader, though I do fundamentally disagree with him (and with the official Democratic national party platform) on some issues.

That is a reasonable statement, but if a nationally elected Republican said this, he'd be pilloried in the press, and Fox would run a special on how he was "RINO".

Which is absurd, if you think about it.

randomjsa: /looks at 2010 results current approval ratings for both Republicans and Congress in general

Yeah, the Tea Party is such a huge problem for the Republicans those of us who are not insane.

SuperPACs are the problem, not the answer.

No matter how far to the right they are, the Republican "brand" in general has idiocy behind it. Fix that first.

*sigh*

Looks like it's the Modern Whigs for me...

snowshovel: vernonFL: When did the Republican Party become so inept? I've seen middle school elections go more smoothly than their primaries.

Well, based on the first page or so of that article, middle school elections go more smoothly mostly because Democrats aren't coming in with their dirty tricks to help get people like Todd Akins to win the Republican primaries.

Also, the Liberal Main stream MSM isn't in middle school election repeating verbatim what the candidates say, in order to unfairly make them look bad.

Infernalist: As I understand the article, the GOP is in full 'throw the derpers under the bus' mode. They're discussing changing rules and such about the primaries, thus eliminating the effectiveness of the far-right Derper crowd.

It would seem as if they've decided the Tea Derper monster that they've created...needs to die.

This can only be good for the political climate in this country. I say, bravo sane GOP. I realize your intentions are simply to try and hold onto power, but even the Devil can do a good deed when he has the proper motivation.

THIS.
Reasonable people who disagree can come together and get things done. And then there are the teapartiers.

They should start trying to find candidates with human souls.

When did the Republican Party become so inept? I've seen middle school elections go more smoothly than their primaries.

It'd be nice if the GOP actually did some soul searching and either concluded that they don't have one or that they need to be more moderate in their positions to sustain themselves

sammyk: Looks like the superpacs have joined the republican civil war. Bitter primary fights with outside money should do wonders for your cause. Please proceed.