On CNN's State of the Union, Jake Tapper asked RNC Chair, Reince Priebus how he can stop the eventual GOP 2016 nominee from winning with a Pyrrhic victory. All the infighting in the party will inevitably take its toll on every candidate, in some way. Unlike the Democrats, who refuse to bash each other in a public forum, the Republicans have been far less polite. On State of the Union,
Priebus warned his party's presidential candidates to "proceed with caution" and avoid alienating Latinos.
"The way you communicate and tone is very important, and sometimes it's not what you say, but how you say it. I think all of our moms have told us that...All of these candidates are going to have to account for their own words."
On Friday, Rand Paul tweeted:
What does it say about GOP when a 3 & half term Gov w/ a successful record of creating jobs bows out as a reality star leads in the polls?
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) September 11, 2015
Reince's answer was that when there are 17 candidates, people will drop out simply by attrition. There is not enough cold hard cash to go around to support that many campaigns. But in the GOP, there's plenty of cash lying around to lobby politicians to do away with environmental and gun regulations as well as lowering taxes on those who should pay their fair share, but would rather not. As they say in Airplane! 'but that's not important right now.'
Priebus gets in a dig about Hillary's latest poll numbers in the lily white states of Iowa and New Hampshire and is unusually optimistic about the chances of the GOP because she's doing so poorly (or so he pretends). Tapper reminds Reince what Rick Perry said in his farewell address:
'demeaning people of Hispanic heritage is not just ignorant, but it betrays the example, of Christ.'
The once-a-day-correct-clock sometimes gets it right.
The issue of Latinos, for example, in 2012 was a lost cause, especially with Romney's self-deport strategy. Reince is confident they will not face this same problem, even if their front runner called them murderers and rapists. Romney also alienated working-class Americans with his moment of clarity comment about the 47%. The problem was not the overall attitude of the GOP, it was, more specifically, the nominee's words that came back to haunt him.
In his typically whiny tone, Reince sounds more confident than any sane person would be, with all the inflammatory rhetoric being thrown around among his party's hopefuls. Of course, they plan to win simply by demonizing their Democratic opponent, which means all of their energy is focused on falsely maligning Hillary Clinton. Priebus seems to think that none of this infighting will harm their awesome odds of winning. We're going to need more popcorn folks.
