RNC Candidates Debate How To Attract More Minorities

Attention RNC, here's how: You come to the realization that America is becoming more brown and black than it is white. You face up to prejudice within your party. You recognize and quickly denounce discrimination within your party. Hello Chip. Hello Radio Talk Show Hosts. You pick leaders who are black and brown. You work to meet the needs of minorities. Then, you lead.

TP: Today, the candidates debated the future of the Party at the National Press Club and all agreed that the GOP needs to bring in more minorities. But in an interview with ThinkProgress after the debate, Steele said that Saltsman is detracting from this effort. He strongly criticized Saltsman’s decision to send out the “Magic Negro” song, saying “it doesn’t help at all” the GOP’s effort to bring in minorities to the party: read the rest/see video

Who's in the running to head the republican national committee:

The Hill: South Carolina GOP chief Katon Dawson, Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, Michigan Republican Party chairman Saul Anuzis and current chairman Robert M. "Mike" Duncan all have the backing of a majority of delegates from three states, the threshold for appearing on the ballot.

Two other candidates have yet to release enough names to guarantee a spot on the ballot. Former Maryland Lieutenant Gov. Michael Steele and former Tennessee GOP party chairman Chip Saltsman, who was criticized by Duncan and Anuzis for circulating a CD to RNC members that included the parody song "Barack the Magic Negro," are also running for the position.

Duncan Slams Saltsman Over Obama Song

Here's the biggest problem that the republicans have: Ever since Bush, the fringy Palinesque types crept in and took over the republican party.

Now the normal republicans are trying to figure out how to get their party back in order. Good luck with that! They don't seem to know who is who and what they want to be when they grow up. They talk a lot about inclusion, but it appears to be lip service. At the same time, it seems Americans are shunning party politics.

To keep us entertained, the republicans are vying to head the RNC, and behaving as if they need a babysitter and some sense.

Mike Duncan, head of the of the RNC, and campaigning to continue to chair the RNC, slammed Chip Saltsman, the immature little boy, also running for RNC chair, who is passing out a CD that contains a highly offensive song about Obama. Read about that here. Saltsman is Mike Huckabee's former campaign manager.

Duncan isn't enlightened, though. I heard him in an interview on NPR and he was clueless about how to move the republican party forward. I'd guess his slamming of Saltsman's behavior is merely politics. One only needs to look at the crappy commercials that the RNC put out during the election and how they used race to exploit people.

Politico: Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan issued a statement Saturday distancing the party’s leadership from one of the GOP’s best-known operatives, Chip Saltsman, who distributed a CD containing “Barack the Magic Negro” as part of his campaign to be elected chairman of the Republican National Committee next month.

Duncan, who has served the campaigns of five presidents dating back to Richard Nixon, is seeking reelection as the party’s 60th chairman in a hotly contested race that includes Saltsman and several other viable candidates.

Saltsman, 40, was former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s campaign manager during the Republican presidential primaries.

Saltsman sent Republican National Committee members, who will choose the next chairman, a CD by conservative political satirist Paul Shanklin, “We HATE the USA.” It contains the controversial track, which was popular on conservative radio. Shanklin’s Web site promises “absolutely the best parodies in talk radio.”

Duncan's statement, in full: "The 2008 election was a wake-up call for Republicans to reach out and bring more people into our party. I am shocked and appalled that anyone would think this is appropriate as it clearly does not move us in the right direction."

Saltsman’s candidacy for national party chair is endorsed by Huckabee and fellow Tennessean Bill Frist, the former Senate majority leader.

Saltsman defended his song selection to The Hill’s Reid Wilson, who first reported the gift.

CNN adds a twist: Puff is mad too.

Also Saturday, Peter Yarrow, who co-wrote "Puff the Magic Dragon," called Saltsman's decision to distribute the parody tune "offensive," and "shocking and saddening in the extreme."

"It is almost unimaginable to me," Yarrow wrote in a statement sent to CNN, that Saltsman "would seriously be considered for the top post of the Republican National Committee. Puff, himself, if asked, would certainly agree."

Yarrow, a member of the 1960s folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, was a contributor to Obama's presidential campaign

Here's another disturbing track from the CD that Saltsman's, Jose Can You See. What a jerk this guy is.
2008 was the year of the Bad Guy and the year of the Moron.

Gingrich Tells RNC to Cut It Out - Support Obama

So far Colin Powell, John McCain and Newt Gingrich are among the republicans who have publicly berated the RNC's attempts to link Obama to Blago. Gingrich says they should get to work. Thanks Newt. 

CNN: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich isn’t happy with the Republican National Committee.

In a letter addressed Tuesday to Mike Duncan, chairman of the RNC, Gingrich slams the committee for releasing a recent Web video that seeks to connect Obama to embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

In a nearly three-minute spot entitled “Questions Remain,” the RNC seeks to raise questions about involvement by Obama or his staff in Blagojevich’s alleged plan to award Obama’s former Senate seat in exchange for political favors.

Gingrich calls the video a “destructive distraction” and asserts that the national committee “is engaged in the sort of negative, attack politics that the voters rejected in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles.”

Instead, “Republicans should be working to help the incoming president succeed in meeting” the “real challenges” the nation is facing, Gingrich writes to Duncan. When Republicans believe Obama is wrong, the GOP should “offer a better solution, instead of just opposing him,” Gingrich also wrote.

The letter ends with Gingrich’s suggestion that the RNC “pull the ad down immediately.”

The RNC tries too hard. Needs to accept loss, grieve and move on. Love the scary music:

Conservative Says: Republicans Need Not Be Cheery

Matthew Continetti, associate editor of the Weekly Standard, hits the nail on the head when he says: "The GOP's problem is that it obstinately refuses to address the problems facing those Americans who do not listen to conservative talk radio."
Republicans have become a caricature.
It's clear, from my point of view anyway, that republicans are in denial. They don't realize that America has changed. They don't realize they need to address more sweeping problems and reach out to people who aren't white. They need to broaden their values to more than: no taxes, Jesus, babies and guns. They also need to have more intelligent leaders, as opposed to Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin and the like. Bobby Jindal, governor of New Orleans, is one of the only republicans who truly strikes me as a future leader. They need to offer real solutions because it's not the America of old.
Want to see how much in denial they are? Just listen to NPR's interview with Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan.

Republicans are now gleeful over the Blago scandal. They're happy that it's not there guy soliciting sex in a toilet. But Continetti reminds them that they needn't be so cheery.

NPR: The GOP's overall situation remains poor. Barack Obama won an impressive victory in November, and the Republicans are unlikely to take back Congress anytime soon. What's more, the share of voters who identified as Republicans on Election Day was the lowest it has been in more than 20 years. And Obama won lopsided victories among groups that will only play a larger role in our politics as time goes on — young people, for example, whom Obama won by a 2-1 margin. And Latinos, whom Obama won by a similar margin. The only age group that went for McCain was 65 and older. That's not what you would call a good sign for the Republicans' long-term future.

Obama is popular, and his agenda is, too. A recent poll found that 60 percent of respondents support Obama's plans for massive infrastructure spending. Voters may be split on whether or not to bail out the Big Three auto companies. But they will not like Republicans anymore — trust me on this — if the GOP drives those companies into bankruptcy and is indirectly responsible for massive layoffs.

The GOP's problem is that it obstinately refuses to address the problems facing those Americans who do not listen to conservative talk radio.

Republicans to Stop Using Obama's Middle Name

after certain radio talk show hosts and others have tried to insinuate that obama's middle name, hussein, means that he a)likes terrorists b)is related to terrorists, the republican national chairman mike duncan says something sane: "We believe this election needs to be about the critical issues confronting our nation.”

whether republicans are denouncing it for the right reason is another story.
it was a tennessee senator who said that using obama's middle name in press releases had "become a distraction." i'd argue it's more than a distraction. it's sort of despicable and shows a lack of world knowledge.

(CNN) – Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan formally denounced Thursday the Tennessee Republican Party's use of Barack Obama's full name in a recent press release questioning the Illinois senator's commitment to Israel.

“The RNC rejects these kinds of campaign tactics," RNC Chairman Mike Duncan said in a statement. "We believe this election needs to be about the critical issues confronting our nation.”

The statement in question, which was released Monday, said the state party is joining a "growing chorus of Americans concerned about the future of the nation of Israel…if Sen. Barack Hussein Obama is elected president of the United States.” It also included a photograph of Obama from a 2006 trip to Kenya in which he is dressed in traditional attire worn by area Muslims.

The press release was sparked by recent praise for the Illinois senator from Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan, who has made several derogatory remarks about Judaism and has indicated his support for Obama. At Tuesday night's MSNBC debate, Obama said he denounced those comments and did not seek Farrakhan's support.

On Wednesday night the party removed both the photo and the reference of Hussein from the statement after Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander called to express his belief that using them had become a distraction, Tennessee GOP Communications Director Bill Hobbs told CNN. read more

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