GOP set to launch rebranding effort

[sinkingfeeling]

Source: CNN.com

CNN has learned that the new initiative, called the National Council for a New America, will be announced Thursday.

It will involve an outreach by an interesting mix of GOP officials, ranging from 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain to Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and the younger brother of the man many Republicans blame for the party's battered brand: former President George W. Bush.

"This forum will include a wide open policy debate that every American can feel free to participate in," the announcement letter reads. "We do this not just to offer an alternative point of view or to be disagreeable. Instead, we want to ask the American people what their hopes and dreams are. Since January, the President and the Democratic Majority in Congress have - rightfully so - put forward their plan for the future, now we must listen, learn and lead through an honest, open conversation with the American people that will result in building policy proposals that will yield the best results for our nation's long-term success."

The first meeting is planned this Saturday in Arlington, Virginia, just outside of the nation's capital. Northern Virginia is one of the suburban areas that has shifted decidedly in favor of the Democrats in recent years, helping President Obama carry the state for the Democrats for president for the first time since 1964.



Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/29/gop-set-to-launch-rebranding-effort/

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Looks like those who want to keep the GOP the party of 'No' might be losing.

[tekisui]

1. More eveidence of a headless, splitting party.

Time will tell which wing wins out, but they will likely keep the party fractured with infighting well past 2012.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

2. Yeah! Fuck that shit about taking a deep look at your own party, your values, etc.

We just need a new name!

[calimary]

33. Rebranding - just call it something different. And don't forget the lipstick (for the same pig).

Take the smelly pile of poo and just put it in a nice Mom's-home-canning jar with a little scrap of gingham fabric covering the lid and you're all set!

I love how they're calling it a "conversation". A "CONVERSATION"????? Aren't those supposed to be two-sided? Doesn't that presumably imply a dialogue, and not a dictation? What a bunch of world-class BS. They're no more interested in having any "conversation" than they are in trying to build a "big tent." There's no room in any tent no matter how big they build it - for any views or opinions or ideas other than their own. They want to have a "CONVERSATION"? They really think they want to have a "conversation" with someone who feels the way I do, or we do, about the issues? They really think they'll be having a "conversation" with anyone who thinks the way my daughter and her friends do about their right to reproductive choice? They're gonna have a "conversation" with anyone who thinks the way my son and his friends do about the way you serve your country - and not by torturing the bejeezuss out of anyone who disagrees or has a conflicting agenda?

Hell, most of 'em would rather be torturing some of US for having a conflicting agenda. I remember their kind. Every time I went to an anti-war gathering. And how we were treated, and told to fuck off and had the finger waved at us and the up-yours gestures all the way down the street, and how we were name-called and accused of treason and anti-Americanism. THEY wanna have a "conversation" with me now????????

Let's see --- how does this go?

,,/, (here, I'll do it with both hands) ,/,,

Translation: I gotcher "conversation" right here!

[Warpy]

3. I'm amazed they noticed it was a losing strategy

Usually noticing something is wrong takes them a lot longer, if they ever do.

The giveaway is that they're talking about "rebranding," meaning the party is still run by a bunch of admen who think that adding "NEW! IMPROVED!" in a banner across the elephant's ass will fool people into thinking it's not still an elephant.

They haven't yet realized just how badly they screwed up or just how many people in this country know they screwed up or that what needs correction isn't the "brand," but the product behind it.

Quite simply, renaming a bad philosophy isn't going to work until a couple of new generations have been born and who are bored with the wisdom of their grandparents.

[Gamey]

14. Form over substance

[patrice]

4. Yeah, the "new" DOG-EAT-DOG stab anyone who disagrees with you in the back America.

Can you say, "Et tu Brute"?

[get the red out]

5. Jeb Bush

That sure gives them a different "brand".

[glitch]

11. Looks like they graduated themselves from Project to Council, agree Jeb's their future.

They are going to need all the money they've stolen to pull off this, and him, as their new brand.

[achtung_circus]

6. rebranding, eh?

let us know how that works.

Maybe like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHDXcBX-e_Y&feature=PlayList&p=BD815E699F672EF8&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=6 ???

[niceypoo]

7. Good fucking luck...

with your rebranding efforts...

[krkaufman]

8. Good to see they still think their problem is just marketing.

That iceflow is getting smaller and smaller, and drifting further and further from the mainland.

edit: But if they actually listen to the "American people", and not just the crazies that make-up their base, their party and the country will be better off. Either way it's a good thing. They'll either become more sane and relevant, or increasingly radical.

[niceypoo]

13. They are absolutely incompetent

They have no belief system. They have been running on fumes since Reagan. They cling to some vague notion of ideological purity. They are the party of zero ideas. They drift further and further to the extremes in an ongoing attempt at fooling themselves into thinking they actually believe in something. Everything they do or say is a hollow, superficial, dog and pony show.

I suggest clown suits.

[yurbud]

21. if they listened to people, they'd realize the ''free market'' can't solve everything

and that their corporations-first foreign and economic policy hurt most Americans.

But they already know that.

[sofa king]

24. Yes, it's clearly marketing, because...

...Because thanks to NSA, the Republican Party already listened to every single goddamned thing every American said over the phone or on the Internet.

[Blue Meany]

9. They still believe that every problem can be addressed

with a PR campaign.

[pattmarty]

10. The pendulum is moving back to left of center in the country..................

...........and the public is tired of the right wing bullshit rhetoric that does nothing at all for the common person. They either become more moderate like the party was in the 50's & 60's or they'll slowly die. Jesus, if you look at Nixon's domestic policies, the Republicans of today would be calling him a "socialist". The John Birchers and the Coors, Kochs, Scaifes and Newt Gingrich types took over the party with Reagan in 1980 and this is what they ended up as.

[NRaleighLiberal]

12. Spokesperson - Screaming OxyClean guy, or greasy infomercial Colonics fella?

[Dogmudgeon]

15. "Hi. I'm Hoot Smalley, and I'm a Republican!"

--d!

[awoke_in_2003]

28. damn..

and I already made my DUzy nomination of the week :)

[awoke_in_2003]

27. I would love...

for Billy Mays to take over as the spokesman of the GOP. He is so damn annoying, the GOP would never win another election.

[AKing]

16. Check out Michael Steele on "Morning Joe".......

Steele: GOP 'disingenuous' criticizing bailouts
@ 9:58 am by Eric Zimmermann

RNC chairman Michael Steele says the GOP is being "disingenuous" in blaming Democrats for poor economic performance, since Republicans started the bailout process in the first place.

"Look, we can't go back out and start pointing fingers at Democrats and saying look how bad they're performing, look at what they're doing with the economy when we jumpstarted this thing," Steele said on MSNBC's Morning Joe. "We were the ones that put the $700 billion on the table and said, all right, let's start nationalizing the banking system."



Added Steele,

"So now, for us to stand back and go, oh, that's a bad thing to do is disingenuous."
http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/04/30/steele-gop-disingenuous-criticizing-bailouts/

[PSPS]

17. What a joke

The only people left in the GOP "base" are the lunatics. The 17 percenters. The dead-enders. Any "wide open policy debate that every American can feel free to participate in" will quickly degenerate into the same fiasco we witnessed at Palin rallies -- a shouting hate fest. Anyone who dared utter a rational thought at one of these get-togethers wouldn't exactly "feel free to participate."

The only way the GOP has any chance to survive is if they scrape the religious right off their jack boot.

[AlphaCentauri]

18. can they just split the party in 2, Orthodox republicans and green conservatives

we need a third party to enhance democracy

[Barack_America]

19. A white man from Arizona AND a white man from Florida???

Wow. Who knew the GOP was so diverse? An "interesting mix" for sure.

[izquierdista]

20. Here's my hope and dream

A world without Republicans in office.

[radfringe]

22. bwaaaa-haaa-haaa

[classysassy]

23. A fair and just society

if America was a just society Jeb Bush would be behind bars.

[Betty]

25. you can't shine shit

you pathetic repiggies.

[awoke_in_2003]

29. wrong...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBj6PonX14A
Gotta love the mythbusters :)

[sofa king]

39. They're not shining it, just re-branding it.

Just like this:

[GinaMaria]

26. Please attach * to this brand as much as possible

How can I help? I may volunteer at the RNC. This is a branding strategy we can fully support. Didn't a poll just come out yesterday that said his numbers have dropped even more since he's out of office? Please make him your poster child GOP.

[patrice]

30. How do you re-brand "We just got a bunch of people killed for nearly nothing." . . . ?

[Wizard777]

31. Jebs turn to ruin the GOP's new brand of new. Hey look we've changed our ways.

Just turn on Rush Limbaugh. He'll swear to it and tell you all about it.

[scipan]

32. Why would they launch in a heavily dem county?

It would make more sense if they started in their own strongholds, or mixed areas. But Arlington is maybe 70% Democrat.

[DebbieCDC]

34. Lipstick on a pig anyone?

[tanyev]

35. Good luck with that. There's a reason they don't try to brand rampaging elephants.

[Terry in Austin]

36. Clueless from the start: "We're a brand!"

"Branding" is what you do for soap flakes and beer, fer cryin out loud.

Marketing brainwash, much?

Geez, a new, improved "brand" of political "product" to please a greater number of "consumers" so the party can get a better electoral "market share."

Where's the frickin beef, already!

:banghead:

[damntexdem]

37. Heat the iron very, very hot. And GOP politicos: this is going to hurt.

Oh, wait, I thought they meant really effective rebranding. ;-)

[sofa king]

38. Too much blood on the current sheepskin, eh?

[bemildred]

40. Rebranding the GOP:

Cattle branding

[and-justice-for-all]

41. They have nothing to offer society...

the same old tired trite no matter what they wrap it in.