Essential Reads:
- Misreading Election 2012 – Andrew Kohurt, The Wall Street Journal
- Predictable in retrospect: The dangers of hindsight bias in election postmortems– Brendan Nyhan, Columbia Jounalism Review
- Inside Obama’s shadow campaign – Steve Friess, Politico
- Romney’s Defeat Exposes Inconvenient Truths of the Republican Party– Charlie Cook, National Journal
- Secret of the Obama Victory? Rerun Watchers, for One Thing– Jim Rutenberg, The New York Times
- The GOP Has Problems With White Voters, Too– Nate Cohn, The New Republic
- America Really Looks Like This– Chris Howard, Facebook
- The GOP’s Problem Is Not Merely One Faction– Jim Geraghty, The Campaign Spot
- Republicans to Mitt Romney: Exit stage left– Chris Cillizza, The Fix
Headlines:
If the goal is to attract the most Hispanics based solely on the candidate’s race, and play “identity politics,” then a Mexican-American candidate would be a much better bet. But I don’t think that’s the goal — nor should it be.
…
Ultimately, it comes down to vision. Yes, Rubio is fluent in Spanish — and that’s important inasmuch as it would make it easier for him to effectively communicate his message to a larger audience.
But it is the message that matters, and here, Rubio’s has a compelling argument for a nation of immigrants — for all of us: America is the last bastion of hope, and we can all achieve the American Dream — if we preserve the freedom that makes that all possible…
Act 1, Scene 1 in the drama over who will run for president on the Republican ticket in 2016 has a clear theme: reject Mitt Romney.
Two of the Republican party’s brightest young stars have made comments in recent days clearly repudiating the 2012 Republican nominee.
Second-term Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, 41, went first, telling The Huffington Post on Tuesday that Romney’s campaign was “too much about biography” and did not lay out a compelling and bold vision of conservative governance.
But then, after Romney told donors on a call Wednesday that President Obama won by giving “gifts” to African-Americans, Latinos, young voters and women, Jindal — the first Indian-American to be elected governor — really let loose.
“I absolutely reject that notion, that description. I think that’s absolutely wrong,” Jindal told reporters at the Republican Governors Association annual meeting in Las Vegas. Politico described Jindal as “visibly agitated” when asked about Romney’s remarks.
Jindal, in his interview with HuffPost, had repeatedly remarked how the GOP should “compete for every vote,” but never really explained what that meant. His repudiation of Romney’s comments about Obama’s “gifts” may have been a more concrete demonstration, though it is also worth noting that it is easier politically to kick Romney after his loss, than it would be to criticize someone currently more powerful in the party, such as House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) or Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), if they were to say something similar.
On Thursday morning, another top 2016 prospect for the GOP, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla), 41, was asked by National Journal’s Major Garrett at The Atlantic’s Washington Ideas Forum whether the idea of “self-deportation,” a term used by Romney during the primary, was now “nullified” in the wake of Romney’s loss.
“I’ve said publicly before and backstage: it’s really hard to get people to listen to you on economic growth, on tax rates, on health care if they think you want to deport their grandmother,” Rubio said. “It’s very difficult to get people to listen to anything else you’re saying. So I think it’s critical, there’s just common sense involved here in terms of how you portray it. Policy matters too but rhetoric is important.”
-Hat-tip to The Argo Journal for the assistance in compiling this post.