A Okie look at all thing Politics, eCampaign, New Media and Warfare - - - I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. - John Adams
“The elephant—the proud and strong symbol of the Republican Party—with his trunk pointed toward 2012 reflects the spirit, unity and strength of our Party as we plan a successful 2012 Republican National Convention that enables us to march toward victory next November,” said convention Chief Executive Officer William D. Harris.
“The waves beneath Tampa Bay represent our beautiful host city’s location on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico,” said convention Chairman Alec Poitevint. “The three stars in the flag symbolize equality, justice and opportunity—core principles of our country’s Constitution and the founding tenets of the Republican Party.”
Congratulations on your success, nationwide and state-by-state. Without the leadership you and our fellow members of the National Committee provide, we as a party, a conservative movement, would not have been able to rally America for the historic victory we achieved on Election Day.
This is an exciting time to be a Republican and, as leaders, we have an awesome task ahead of us. The American people have given us a ‘second chance’ and that opportunity brings with it huge responsibility and challenge.
Now we turn our attention to 2012. America must elect a new President. It is that hope, that necessity, that challenge, that draws me to announce my candidacy for the Chairmanship of the Republican National Committee.
I don’t take lightly the fact that I am challenging a friend and colleague for the Chairmanship. When Michael was elected Chairman, I was the only candidate who stepped forward to attend the next morning’s RNC breakfast meeting, agreed to join the transition team, and later took on several roles as a team player on the RNC…and have attended every meeting since.
Given my involvement and efforts to help over the past two years, it was not an easy decision for me to seek the post. As someone who believes in loyalty, my natural instinct would be to sit this out. But the simple fact is that the overriding challenge we face is winning back the Presidency in 2012 and we will not accomplish that objective unless there is dramatic change in the way the RNC does business.
We cannot be misled by our victories this year. In 1994 we won the House and Senate yet just two years later Bill Clinton cruised to re-election. As we’ve seen in the past two years public opinion can change with breathtaking speed.
We can’t rely on our wins in 2010 to carry us to success in 2012. We also can’t win in 2012 unless the RNC re-establishes itself as the powerful force that put us over the top in 2000 and 2004.
But to be a force, the RNC must change and that requires new leadership at the top. I am offering you an alternative, a choice, a different approach to the leadership and stewardship of our party.
Chairman Steele’s record speaks for itself. He has his way of doing things. I have mine.
We will not win in 2012 if the RNC is not able to provide the financial resources we need to support the organizational efforts and ground games of our state parties. Without a fully funded Victory program we will be overwhelmed by the efforts of the unions, the Obama campaign and all their allies.
Even though we won an overall victory in 2010 we lost some heartbreaking statewide races in places like Illinois, Colorado, West Virginia, Washington and Nevada, and countless congressional and legislative districts because the other side had a better turnout effort.
Think about your own state. Did some terrific Republican candidate work their hearts out, yet fall short by a handful of votes on Election Day? Now ask yourself: if the RNC had properly funded the Victory program in your state, would that candidate have been a winner? Would that candidate have benefited from a robust 72-hour program with ground troops sweeping in for the final weekend?
These are the stakes:
We will only win in 2012 if the RNC has the maximum level of resources it is allowed to spend on the GOP Presidential ticket.
We will only win in 2012 if the Chairman of the RNC steps out of the limelight and allows our elected officials and presidential candidates to be the face, voice, and agenda setter for Republicans.
And, we will only hold on to our gains–and expand them– if the RNC is able to provide the funding and leadership on reapportionment that is so critical.
Thankfully, in 2010 a group of alternative organizations emerged to help fill the void created by the RNC’s shortage of resources. They found support from many RNC major donors who had lost faith in the RNC. We need these groups and their support, but they can’t be expected to replace the RNC in a presidential year. We must rebuild the trust with our party’s major donors and bring them back to the table.
My philosophy of how the National Committee should be run is simple: to use a football analogy, I believe we should do the “blocking and tackling” for the candidates.
Today, we have many great potential candidates emerging as leaders of our country and our party. Member of Congress, Senators and Governors now present the ‘face’ of the Republican Party. As our elected representatives, it is their job to set the public policy agenda.
As party leaders and grassroots activists, it is our job to make the calls, knock on the doors, organize our states and precincts and, most importantly, raise the money to help elect Republicans.
With those thoughts in mind let me outline what I will do if you choose to elect me as Chairman.
I will be a tenacious fundraiser who will make fundraising my number 1 priority as Chairman. As the Michigan Republican Chairman during some of our party’s toughest times, I raised record amounts of money to make sure our efforts were funded. I will commit a majority of my time to funding our efforts for this upcoming cycle.
I will NOT strive to be the voice or the face of our party. Of course I will be happy to discuss politics and elections with the media, but I won’t be competing with valuable airtime from the men and women on our ticket. Instead, I will work with our elected leaders around the country to give them maximum exposure and guarantee a consistent message that leads us to victory.
I will be a nuts and bolts type of Chairman, one who will concentrate on the fundamentals and ensure we properly develop and execute our ground game. It will be my goal to create an unprecedented organizational base, fully funded, to make more phone calls, knock on more doors, mail more material and compete on the airwaves to get our message across.
I will work with our National Convention committee and ultimately our nominee for President to ensure an effective, efficient Convention that will showcase our party and launch our nominee into the general election campaign with momentum. I will work diligently to ensure that we spend every dollar towards running the most efficient and exciting convention possible.
I will raise the funds needed to make sure we have a state of the art reapportionment program nationwide. To take advantage of our 2010 state election victories we will need to buttress the efforts of our state parties and legislative caucuses to make sure they have the information technology, legal support, and data needed to win the redistricting war.
I will run a tight ship and be a conscientious steward of our donor’s money. I will engage both our donor community and the Budget Committee in a detailed review and supervision of how we allocate our resources. I will be accountable for every penny spent. I will always be mindful that the RNC’s resources come from hard-working Americans who love their country and were willing to sacrifice to make it a better place.
I will be a team player and work cooperatively with the NRSC, NRCC and RGA to elect more Republicans across our country. I will not take sides in the Presidential primary contest but will be a reliable player that the eventual presidential nominee will be able to depend on, and work with closely and cooperatively through the presidential campaign.
I will be available to you and the other Committee members and use your input and advice as we develop election targets and support programs.
I will be directly in charge of our Election Day programs and support efforts. During the final days of the 2012 campaign I will be at headquarters 24/7, overseeing our national campaign and making sure that every call is made, every email sent, every piece of literature delivered and every Republican voter we can identify gets to the polls in order to achieve success.
Finally, I will ONLY run for ONE term, help elect our president and support his/her recommendation for our next Chairman.
We saw this plan work in Michigan this year. By raising the necessary funds and giving local parties the tools they needed, the Michigan Republican Party created an environment where our slate of great candidates cruised to victory, winning every statewide office, taking back the state house and Supreme Court, increasing majority in the state senate and increasing our GOP Congressional delegation by two seats.
My agenda is very straightforward. I have no interest in running for office. I won’t be writing a book. It is not my goal to be famous. However, you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who will work harder, more diligently and be more committed to electing Republicans from the top to every township and city across this great country of ours.
Our Republican Party has a proud history as the Grand Old Party but we have an even brighter future as the Grand Opportunity Party that leads us into the 21st century with innovative solutions based upon our proven principles.
In 2012 one of two things will happen. We will either win back the Senate and White House and set America on the right pathway forward, or we will squander this opportunity and allow President Obama to continue moving our nation to the left, to an era of unprecedented government growth and intrusion into our lives.
As an RNC member, the choice is yours as the outcome will be determined, in large part, by which party has the resources and the organizational program to prevail.
If you believe that what we have seen at the RNC the past two years is good enough to provide us a victory in 2012 then by all means you should stick with our current leadership and direction.
But if you agree with me that victory in 2012 requires a new set of priorities and new leadership I hope you will consider supporting my candidacy for RNC Chairman.
RNC Chairman Michael Steele Delivers Weekly Republican Address.
Transcript:
This is Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Democrats have controlled both branches of government for less than a month. And you have to wonder if all that power has gone to their heads.
For the last two weeks, theyve been trying to force a massive spending bill through Congress under the guise of economic relief.
All of us Republicans and Democrats agree the government must act to kick-start the American economy. American families are doing their best to balance their own budgets and pay their mortgages.
The fastest way to help those families is by letting them keep more of the money they earn. Individual empowerment: thats how you stimulate the economy.
But the Democrats have a different philosophy. Instead of leaving money in the family checkbook, they want to send it to Washington, run it through a slow and inefficient government, and hope that does some good.
When families keep the money, they spend it, save it, or invest it. And the private sector economy benefits when families and businesses buy consumer goods or invest it for the future. But when Washington spends the money, some of it may flow into the economy, but all too often, much gets wasted.
Democrats in Congress want a one-trillion dollar spending bill. Youve heard about the pork-barrel programs they want to fund 45 million dollars for ATV trails and removal of fish passage barriers is one that caught my eye. Exactly what is a fish passage barrier and why does it cost 45 million dollars to stimulate the economy with it?
Thats why Republicans in the House voted against uncontrolled spending. This is not a bragging point, but rather a statement that at least Republicans would stand with the American taxpayer.
But voting no is not enough and Republicans have offered innovative ideas to help struggling families and small businesses. Weve offered plans to spark job creation and investment through lower taxes, to stop the taxation of unemployment benefits, and to help Americans keep their jobs and their homes.
The comprehensive Republican plan would lower taxes for all working American families. If youre married, the first 16,750 dollars you make this year will be taxed at ten percent. Why dont we cut that rate in half to give instant buying power to every working American family?
Good ideas lots of them all left out of this plan by the Democrats in Congress.
Republicans stand ready to work with reasonable Democrats to do what is right for America.
But it will take more than bipartisan words from the President. It will require fair-minded action from Democrats in Congress.
Since his appointment as Chairman of the Republican National Committee in 2007, Mike Duncan has led the Republican Party to the most spectacular national political defeat in Modern American History. To call the Republican National Committee campaign efforts under his leadership disastrously inept is to be charitable to him.
The party’s 2008 Presidential nominee, John McCain, was thoroughly trounced by a Democratic opposition that was agile, well organized, focused, and technologically savvy. We also lost a significant number of seats in both the Senate and the House, where we were already a minority.
Inexplicably, Mr. Duncan apparently seems to believe that his dismal performance of failed leadership in the 2008 election recommends him for another term as RNC chair. Let's face it, his DNC counterpart, the maniacally screechy Howard Dean, just knocked his block off, and Mr. Duncan apparently still fails to realize his own culpability in this debacle.
How else can you explain Mr. Duncan’s recent announcement that he is declaring himself a candidate for another term as RNC Chair, despite the fact that there are already five other candidates in the race, all of whom are eminently more qualified than him to lead the party out of its recent failures?
There are a few who defend Duncan’s leadership. They claim he is a good manager of resources. This argument sounds to me like recommending the captain of the Titanic, had he survived the tragedy, to captain the very next transatlantic passenger ship voyage on the grounds that the kitchen of the Titanic did not once run out of rolls during the entire voyage... at least, until the ship sank in the icy waters of the North Atlantic.
Immediately after the election losses, a spate of grass roots efforts grew up, literally almost overnight, to resurrect the Republican Party, this time around based on true principles of conservatism and an understanding and skill in the use of technology to communicate the conservative message. The first, and arguably the most recognized of these efforts, the Rebuild the Party movement, was launched by Patrick Ruffini, who set forward a detailed action plan for the party just days after the election loss.
Other movements, such as Smart Girl Politics, and the #dontgo movement, and the New Republicans, are also spurring the growth of grass roots movements, as well as the group of which I am the co-founder, Top Conservatives on Twitter, which at this moment has over 1,500 members and is growing fast.
There are tens of thousands of netizen warriors working to rebuild the conservative movement and Republican Party this very moment.
The awful truth of the matter, which we must acknowledge plainly and honestly, is that Mike Duncan is the #1 technological laggard, and it is time for him to get out of the way so the grass roots conservative movement can now lead the Republican party back to victory.
Therefore, this evening I am calling on Mike Duncan to immediately withdraw his candidacy for the position of Chairman of the Republican National Committee. I know that he is committed to conservative principles, and I am telling him plainly and directly that the very best thing he can do to advance the cause of conservatism and the Republican Party is to take this personally uncomfortable step right now.
I am making this call for his withdrawal as an individual grass roots conservative Republican activist, who was elected statewide as a Tennessee Delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2008. I speak only for myself, but as co-founder of #TCOT I can say with complete certainty that my views represent the vast majority of the #TCOT community. With the exception of a few of his announced supporters who have recently joined our group, I would hazard to guess that my view may well be unanimously supported by the rapidly growing group of 1,500 conservative activist “netizen warriors”
The 168 members of the Republican National Committee will be voting on January 28-29, 2009 to select a Chairman for the next two years, and I am asking every member of the #TCOT organization who agrees with my views on the necessity of Mr. Duncan's withdrawal to communicate directly and through the use of their blogs with these 168 members.
In addition, you can tell me if you agree with my call for Mike Duncan to withdraw immediately from the RNC Chair Race by taking the online poll on this topic, which you can find now at the #TCOT Report.
I am publicly calling for Mr. Duncan's immediate withdrawal from the RNC race for 2 reasons:
1. The mere fact he has announced his candidacy, in light of two years of the most spectacular failure in American political history indicates how utterly disconnected he is from the real world of technology and engagement in which the rest of us live.
2. Apparently, some RNC members – among those 168 who will be able to vote for Chair Jan 28 are equally disconnected from reality and may be considering a vote for Duncan. This is hard to believe, and points to the importance of immediate corrective action.
The conservative and Republican grass roots movement are likely to ignore the RNC if Mr. Duncan is elected Chairman in January. Frankly, it will sound the death knell of irrelevancy for the RNC. The old guard at the RNC blew it big time. It's time for the failed old guard to step out of the way and let us in the grass roots movement lead now.
I note that Mr. Duncan apparently has recently and belatedly endorsed the Rebuild the Party Platform, but based on his performance of the past two years, I am convinced that he does not comprehend how to implement this platform. It looks to me like he is just checking the box.
Others in the press have recently noted that Mr. Duncan isn't up for the job. Here’s what Shawn Steel had to say in Politico yesterday:
“Duncan has been the Invisible Chairman, installed in January 2007 by Karl Rove to be unobtrusive — a mission he has carried out brilliantly. Many, if not most, Republican leaders and activists don’t know who he is. For example, when Duncan was a guest recently on the Hugh Hewitt Show, the radio host asked Duncan why this was the first time this RNC chairman had ever asked to come on the show and address millions of his fellow Republicans.
Duncan couldn’t give an answer other than he’d been busy for the past year. I suppose that’s one way to look at it. Another way is he hasn’t provided the kind of leadership the Republican National Committee needs in this day and age.
Despite his wraithlike RNC chairman, Duncan is slightly favored for reelection as chairman at the end of January. It should be cause for alarm when the chairmanship front-runner is a “Mike Who?” under who’s watch the GOP suffered its worst drubbing in decades.”
The opposition, also, apparently, is gleeful at the possibility of Mr. Duncan maintaining the Chairmanship of the RNC. Here’s what Yuna Shin recently said at the Huffington Post.
“This morning, NPR's Steve Inskeep interviewed the chairman of the Republican party, Mike Duncan, who is trying to hold on to his chairmanship despite the massive GOP loss in November. The most interesting part of the interview wasn't anything Duncan said.
Rather, it was Duncan's long silence when asked about the perception of the GOP as the party of exclusion. His silence spoke louder than anything that he had said in terms of how incapable the Republican Party still is of recognizing what it did wrong and what it needs to do in order to gain Americans' trust.”
I believe that after Mr. Duncan has read this article, and thoughtfully reflected on how he can best serve the Republican Party and the conservative movement, he will recognize it is his duty to withdraw from the race for the Chairmanship of the RNC immediately.
Yesterday, I spoke extensively with a prominent (understatement) Republican strategist, and he informed me that he believes there is great interest in Sen. Fred Thompson serving as the next Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Fred is a mainstream conservative who made a lot of sense during the Republican debates. Watch for more and more chatter about this because there is a great deal of dissatisfaction with some of the other names who have been floated so far.
BTW, I attended a forum at the Harvard Kennedy School yesterday where Sen. Thompson spoke and answered questions for almost two hours. He was well received and spoke with much passion.
The number of fake names attached to Barack Obama's campaign contributions continue to pile up as news outlets and political researchers go through thousands of pages of donor listings.
New discoveries include Edrty Eddty, who donated $250 in July 2008 and Es Esh, who gave $325 in July. Esh's address: "fhdfhdfh, Erial, NJ 08081"
"Every campaign faces the challenge of screening and reviewing its contributions," Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said. The campaign returned all the money.
Campaign finance experts say the notion that someone would donate under a fake name is not as surprising as it might seem. Some don't want to be identified to avoid getting inundated with future requests. Others are pranksters.
What has changed is the number of false donors, and that has to do with the dramatic change in the scale of Internet fundraising efforts, said Brett Kappel, a Democratic campaign finance lawyer. "Both of these campaigns have raised several orders of magnitude more money over the Internet than any previous campaign," Kappel said. "The FEC software can't even handle it, their reports are so large."
The anonymity and reach of the Internet has increased the opportunity for foreign nationals to donate as well. The Republican National Committee has filed a complaint with the FEC to review Obama's contributions for evidence of foreign influence.
An August review by the Associated Press found that Obama's campaign accepted donations from at least three foreigners.
LaBolt rejected the complaint about possible foreign donors as little more than political mischief, and he noted that McCain refunded about $50,000 in donations solicited by Mustafa Abu Naba'a, a Jordanian national who bundled contributions for McCain in concert with a Florida businessman.
