The Republicans are starting to tweet about change, Obama’s got free pens and something he’d like you to ignore and Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” has officially taken over the world.
While some members of the GOP are running around spreading good cheer to other Republicans through the dissemination of that seminal musical work “Barack the Magic Negro” — Saltsman’s dropped out of the race to helm the GOP, by the way — or voting against everything Barack Obama wants passed because Nancy Pelosi isn’t nice enough to them, others are actually trying to figure out ways to help the party stop hemorrhaging voters and power. What’s surprising is that one of those people in Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, not exactly the brightest bulb on the GE sign (Schenectady, represent!), who noticed that maybe being the party of white people who like guns, hate immigrants and are all Up With Jesus isn’t the best strategy for wielding power in the future.
“We’re all concerned about the fact that the very wealthy and the very poor, the most and least educated, and a majority of minority voters, seem to have more or less stopped paying attention to us,” McConnell said in a speech at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting. “And we should be concerned that, as a result of all this, the Republican Party seems to be slipping into a position of being more of a regional party than a national one.” In stark terms, the Kentucky Republican added: “In politics, there’s a name for a regional party: It’s called a minority party. … As Republicans, we know that common-sense conservative principles aren’t regional. But I think we have to admit that our sales job has been. And in my view, that needs to change” .
See, they aren’t all stupid, which I think pretty much means that McConnell might not be the biggest fan of incumbent Republican National Committee chair Mike Duncan, who is running for reelection but denies that the GOP has had a problem harnessing technology to make its point.