Ryan, Rubio Seek Party Rebranding

WSJ ^ | 04 Dec 2012 | Neil King Jr.

[Theoria]

Two of the Republican Party's most prominent voices, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, laid out their visions for broadening the GOP's economic message in dual speeches Tuesday, as conservatives seek new moorings in the aftermath of Mitt Romney's presidential defeat last month.

The speeches revealed Mr. Ryan and Mr. Rubio—respectively, the party's most recent vice-presidential nominee and a freshman senator seen as a rising star—moving briskly to rebrand both themselves and their party at a time of debate and introspection over how to steer the GOP in a new direction.

The men, both seen as potential 2016 presidential hopefuls, used a packed awards dinner hosted by the Jack Kemp Foundation to lay out their views on the role of government in strengthening the middle class and assisting the poor.

Mr. Ryan's speech was his first since his loss as part of the GOP presidential ticket a month ago. Some of their remarks came off as subtle jabs at Mr. Romney and his contention during the campaign that 47% of Americans were irredeemably reliant on government aid.

"Some say that…too manypeople want things from government," said Mr. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants. "But I am still convinced that the overwhelming majority of our people just want what my parents had: a chance."

Mr. Ryan noted that the late Mr. Kemp—his onetime mentor, a congressman and a predecessor as a GOP vice-presidential nominee—"hated the idea that any part of America could be written off."

Conservatives have criticized the Romney campaign for focusing so heavily on small-business owners and for not making a convincing case for how his ideas would benefit the poor and the working class.

[chris37]

The men who put the knife in my back are not my friends.

I’m not going to vote them into power anymore.

I’m going to vote aginst them.

Republican = enemy.

Sorry grandma, actions have consequences and so do inactions, and the GOP is guilty of both. My loyality, respect, trust and support must be earned by actions and deeds, and they have earned my malice.

[danielmryan]

We already have around 40 so-called “third parties”, none of them have gone anywhere so why will another one. Anyone who believes yet another one is going to solve any problems has to also believe in Santa Claus.

I think they believe because they remember Ross Perot in '92.

[muawiyah]

yours is a good post to remind folks that we have well over 100 parties in this country. Some of them are meaningful and some aren't ~ for instance the Republican party of Texas is highly meaningful and the Democrat party of New York is certainly as meaningful.

Think federally and you'll understand the concept.

Now, where does the problem come from inside the Republican party? It's a critter we call the GOP-e. Although a mere faction with at most a 15% reliable following, they throttled the Republican National Committee ~ and its various agencies and committees.

We can no longer win elections anywhere in the country with the assistance of the RNC ~ Romney wasn't the only loser, nearly two dozen Republican party candidates for US Senate around the country LOST! We even had the spectacle of Preibus, the administrative officer for the RNC holding up campaign funds for an official senate candidate ~ on what seem to have been the orders of a hired consultant, Karl Rove!

We need to disestablish the RNC and replace it with a NEW RNC with different personnel, different rules, a different agenda and a different relationship with the state parties!

That can be done by forming that NEW RNC and inviting the state committees to send delegates ~ maybe we can start with Texas

[Free Vulcan]

Finally - someone that gets it. Yes, that and alot more, from the bottom up.

In my opinion, most who want a third party want it because they want to be a power broker within it. I’ve seen those types and they are egos looking for a cause to destroy with their own megalomania.