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OUCH

GOP Needs a Proctology Exam, Says Former Mississippi Gov.

Republicans require a harsh assessment of where they went wrong, says Haley Barbour

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by Dain Fitzgerald

Staff Writer t

Image: Reuters

It was once "Morning in America" for the GOP, but now some Republicans are suggesting the party try taking a peek where the sun don't shine.

Former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour told a gathering of fellow Republicans Wednesday that their party needs a better ground game, an improved organizational outreach, and "a very serious...proctology exam." Not being one to mince metaphors, Barbour said the GOP requires a "brutally honest assessment" of its failings in the most recent presidential election. Its top priority, he says: the Latino electorate.

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Do you agree with Barbour's sentiment (if not his way of expressing it)?

Comments (view in Forum)

  • Keyjo
    !
    Yes, I agree. The Republicans simply don't connect with the 21st century. They're like the old lady down the street who still has a rotary phone and black & white television with rabbit ears. Republican receivers still get only three snowy channels.
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
    !
    You may have a point here. For the first time I'm actually seeing where you're coming from and well, you are making a lot of sense.

    So let's look at this then. Back during the age of the rotary phone, were our morals better or worse than they are now? How about our national debt? Unemployment rate? Unwed mothers? Latchkey children? Where did we rank in the world as far as eduction? How much did we spend on entitlements? Oh so many questions. Maybe we all should go back to 3 snowy channels and leave all thees high fa looting liberal immoral schemes alone, as they are destroying our once great nation.
  • kirbstomp1
    !
    @Neo_NtheMatrix - go take your Alzheimer's medication. It's not 1948 anymore. Welcome to an America that's trying to fit into the 'modern' world, so we don't look like north Korea or Cuba stuck in the past, with cold war policies. Oh and all the debt, yea most of that debt comes from your generation, don't blame the young generation for the problems you allowed to be voted in. Your the group to screw this country up. It's time for us to fix y'alls problems, and yea there's lots of them. We might even have to pass them off to our kids.
  • Zazziness
    !
    @Neo_NtheMatrix Morals were worse than they are now. I was alive back then and remember it was OK to openly be a racist. No one even blushed about it. Girls expected to grow up to me housewives, nurses or secretaries and that was it, period, as far as legitimate careers went. Thank God, we have moved beyond that. Unwed mothers back then? Lots of them. Orphanages have always existed and not just for orphans. Latchkey children? Sure. I know what you're imagining. Some rosy, unrealistic world where Ozzie and Harriet are cloned house-to-house and "My Three Sons" is as rough as it gets. That was not what the world was like then. You can't return to a time exists only in your imagination and, having been there in reality, I can tell you we are all a lot better off today.
  • u
    Suff
    !
    Spending money you don't have on things you don't need and souring yourselves into debt isn't a way to connect to the twenty-first century. You use that as a platform, but fail to see that one day, one day soon, it will hit the fan and you will have nothing.
  • DerivePI
    !
    @Suff - Replace your "you"s with "we"s (except for regarding the platform). We get to shovel this shit together.
  • View all 19 replies >
  • u
    ctc
    !
    They have a serious identity problem....differering factions all going in different directions.......all trying to hijack the party.
    What do elitists, tea-partyers, the moral majority, old angry white guys, and the military industrial complex have in common.........nothing!!
    There's a circus going on under that tent.....it's for entertainment purposes only.
  • Jeff_Woehrle
    !
    If the GOP wants more votes, we'll just need to start promising stuff to folks that we can't possibly pay for. America has become a nation of takers, and they will not likely vote for anyone who proposes to reduce the free stuff they get. ObumblePhones to welfare, Americans have become accustomed to something for nothing.

    Not without precedent. Just ask Greece.
  • DogLady_1
    !
    If they want more votes, they can start being honest and stop playing sex games and involving themselves in scandals (all funded by the taxpayers no less). They can stop making backroom deals and they can learn how to lead by example, not by punditry and propaganda.
  • Jeff_Woehrle
    !
    @DogLady_1 Nice sentiment, but this most recent election proves that nothing succeeds like free stuff. If Republicans become the party of entitlement (at least to a greater degree than democrats), election victories will follow.

    The Pauls now outvote the Peters. So guess who's going to get robbed.
  • u
    cpeter133
    !
    Not only is his terminology right on the money, but they administer it via the telescope at mt. palomar. On the other hand, if we can keep them at each other's throats, future elections will be easier to win by the dems.
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
    !
    I'm almost glad that obama stole the election. It was like the cover has been pulled off and now all the snakes are scurrying around. Now that we have light shining on all the RINOs, it is a good time to purge them from our party.

    We will never support affirmative action,abortion, illegal immigration, reparations, or any other goofball idea liberals come up with - nor should we pretend that we we will. We must stand up as conservatives and be proud that we work hard everyday for what we have and don't ask for handouts from anyone, and DEMAND that everyone else no matter what "protected" group they belong to do the same.

    If we want to hand a debt free nation over to our children and grandchildren, it won't happen by giving out more "freebies" to special interest groups than the other party.

    Haley, if you don't like where the party is headed then GET OUT!
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
    !
    I don't expect liberals to agree. Why would they want a party they are at odds with to succeed. They will only give snark, not advice, as their handouts depend on keeping people like obama in power.
  • Zazziness
    !
    @Neo_NtheMatrix Funny thing. I've read lots of people give practical, solid suggestions for what they'd like to see happen but they seem to bounce off you as though they never wrote them. Then you grouse about imaginary things you claim they've said. Perhaps, grasshopper, the fault is in the eye of the neocon as opposed to the entire rest of the world being askew.
  • View all 22 replies >
  • dances-weebles
    !
    i agree with him in that the gop is filled with places to stick a proctoscope, but his assessment of what they need to do smacks of racism and classism. stop it with the playing the minorities like they are some sort of game pieces and play to the whole room.

    the gop needs to stop playing to the wealthy, the r/r, and north american elitists and play to the world. they need to let go of the conservative shirt tail and the profit at any price philosophy. they need to learn that they can let go of their fear and their hatred. they need to learn that nobody in the u.s. is any better than anyone in any other country, and that they can't tell the other peoples of the world how they must live, or run their countries and that their religions don't fit in politics, and in fact have absolutely nothing to do with governing the u.s. and until they learn this they will continue to fail miserably... even if they win an election they fail exactly like nixon failed, and exactly as every republican administration since (and including) r. reagan has failed.

    this is the history of what the republican party has become... failure.
  • Russell797
    !
    Couldn't agree more. If Republicans believe their failure with minorities is simply a failure of sales pitch and messaging, then they are sorely mistaken. Minorities don't much care for who the Republicans are and what they stand for. Watch how they try to fix their image though, it will be all spin and rhetoric.
  • o
    Zoe2012
    !
    No, stupid. I wonder if Obama will start Obamabakery like Obamamotors. These folks are really stupid. BCT Union!

    NBC Columbus

    IRVING, Texas --
    Hostess Brands says it is going out of business, closing plants that make Twinkies and Wonder Bread and laying off all of its 18,500 workers.

    The Irving, Texas, company says a nationwide worker strike crippled its ability to make and deliver its products at several locations.

    Hostess had warned employees that it would file a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to unwind its business and sell assets if plant operations didn't return to normal levels by Thursday evening.

    The privately held company filed for Chapter 11 protection in January, its second trip through bankruptcy court in less than a decade.
  • u
    RobertJHarsh
    !
    http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/hostes...

    Here is a link to one of MANY articles. This article is the first of many to come. Obamacare is going to be the knife through the heart of thousands of businesses in this country. Now yes, this article does not mention Obamacare but a google news search is coming up with job losses, cuts, hours cuts, and pay cuts to companies can comply with Obamacare.
  • View all 12 replies >
  • Zazziness
    !
    I guess it's better Republicans say these things to themselves because I believe their general base has heard this repeatedly, for years, whenever they discuss politics in an open forum and they have not listened.
  • DARSB
    !
    How to tell when the GOP has actually changed: when party leaders look more like Marco Rubio or Susanna Martinez and less like Haley Barber.
  • DogLady_1
    !
    Oh Barbour, don't act like you are not part of the problem... As MS governor, you were more focused on pleasing the GOP than you were your own citizenry. Now your hypocrisy is glaring for all to see. You had several chances to do exactly what you are criticzing the GOP for not doing, but you chose to pardon unrepentant murderers and profit from your stock in Pfizer's abortion pills. You didn't have to endorse the honoring of a KKK grand wizard with a comemeorative license plate. In case you are still unsure about my feelings, you make me sick. You are a disgrace and only a moron should take your advice on anything!
  • u
    MOOGG
    !
    Yes, I do agree with his views that the GOP needs to reflect upon where they went wrong. Please, find a candidate that represents their belief system but who doesn't alienate at least if not more than 50% of the population. As I said on another poll, good on the Latino's getting the vote out. America is not made up of "white middle-aged men". They should take a good look at the faces of the Americans looking back at them and take all of those faces into consideration, not just the white man. Sincerely (a middle-class white woman married to a white man, raising a white child in a non-racist home).
  • o
    Antiecm
    !
    I can tell you where they went wrong. When they allowed places like Ohio to change the voter laws so they can vote multiple times. How many of the cities in Ohio had more votes that registered voters. Some by as much as three times. Obama did not win any election. The pundits cheated and got him in. It's time he identified himself to us all. Trump is a fool, but he clearly showed Obama to not be an American. Or does our leader just say screw the poor, and refuse the 5 million dollars. That alone should make Congress demand his papers. Until they do, most of this country is ready to form another country as is our right under the US Constitution.
  • u
    classychazy
    !
    That's a lie! Where is your proof of voter fraud? I live in Ohio and I had to show my driver's license to vote. Now I ask again where is your proof that this went on?
  • NormalFlora
    !
    @classychazy Yes, I also live in Ohio and the main reason it took so long to vote was because of the ID check, residence check, and signature comparison. There's no way anyone could have voted twice. This is just a load of BS from a bunch of sore losers.
  • NormalFlora
    !
    @Antiecm Oh, so an extreme right-wing journalist found three extreme right-wing voters who were then persuaded to tell an extreme right-wing fable of voter fraud. Yeah, that's proof LOL.
  • View all 6 replies >
  • o
    hertz_doughnut
    !
    No. I believe our commander in chief needs a psyche evaluation. It was that stupid Obamacon's fault. Now I am released. I am more flexible. I can work on my own agenda. Obama before re-election and Obama after re-election. If he is not the same man then I would get concerned about multiple personality dis-function. Some people believe in things and never change.
  • harold
    !
    Does he mean to change the way Republicans present their story, or is he saying that Republicans need to change their philosophies? Real change, or just different lipstick on their pig?