New video series from RNC highlights problems with Obamacare website

The RNC rolled out a new website and a series of short videos highlighting the many problems with the launch of the Obamacare website and other annoyances with the new health care law.

The videos parody the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads and are posted at obamacarecosts.org. They are also encouraging use of a hashtag, #ImObamacare.

Here's my favorite of the videos:

Obama proves again that his own words make the best RNC ads

Yesterday, our national debt officially went over the $16 trillion mark. (You can watch the numbers dizzily spin along for yourself at USDebtClock.org.)

Appropriately, we hit this nausea-inducing milestone on the day that the Democrats kicked off their national convention, hoping to reelect Barack Obama, the guy who led the way in creating a large chunk of that debt.

Never one to pass up an opportunity, the RNC released another web ad, again using Obama's own words against him to make their point:

New RNC ad uses Obama's own words against him [VIDEO]

This new ad from the RNC makes devastatingly effective use of Barack Obama's own words:

#GOP2012 interview with Matt Kibbe

I ran into Matt Kibbe, the President of FreedomWorks, earlier today in the Google Lounge at the Tampa Convention Center. Here's his comments on Paul Ryan as the Republican Vice Presidential nominee and why conservatives need to unite behind the Romney/Ryan ticket to defeat Barack Obama:

Podcasts and a #GOP2012 Convention Preview

Sorry about the lack of posts the past few days. I've been busy getting ready for the Republican Convention in Tampa next week. It's going to be an amazing time and we're not going to let some stupid hurricane spoil our party.

Anyway, I may not have had much time to write, but I did manage to chatter away on some podcasts this week. I've also included some links and news about the convention below the break:

This is not a recap of the State of The Union

So, last night we went through the annual circus known as the State of the Union (SOTU) address. Meh. I readily admit that I am viewing these speeches through a very partisan lens, but wow, it was painful to sit through that.

I'm honestly not very interested in writing a play-by-play recap of the speech, so consider this your non-recap recap. Hey, if Sarah Palin can give a non-endorsement endorsement, then I can do a non-recap recap, right? We've got lots of links, some videos, a generous serving of Marco Rubio (I know what y'all like)...

Dear RNC, More of This, Please [VIDEO]

I'm glad to see that the RNC is coming out swinging against Barack Obama now. Here's their latest web ad:

More reactions to Florida's January 31st primary date

The announcement that Florida's presidential primary would be January 31, 2012 brought cheers from some, jeers from others, and profanities from certain blogger friends of mine:

<-- on the phone trying to convince @rsmccain not to send predator drones to FL. #SomeoneDoesNOTWantToSpendChristmasInIowaFri Sep 30 21:20:02 via webSarah Rumpf
rumpfshaker

Thanks for the soundbite, Debbie!

Florida Congresswoman and DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been sticking her foot in her mouth so often lately, she's learned how to floss her teeth with her toes.

Recently, during an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, DWS made the laughably, ridiculously, unbelievably stupid remark that "under President Obama's leadership, we were able to turn this economy around."

Say what?!

Yeah. Host David Gregory didn't buy it either: "Clearly the economy has not been turned around...Americans don't believe that to be the case."

Cue the RNC's media team, who came up with this catchy little one-minute video:


YouTube | RNC | Economic Turnaround?

Gotta love the closing line:

They'll say anything to save their own jobs, but what have they done to save yours?

Debbie Wasserman Schultz really is the gift that keeps on giving. She has filled the role vacated by my former Congressman, our one-hit-blunder Alan Grayson, as the Democrats' rabid attack dog, but they forget that you win elections by (1) energizing your base AND (2) not scaring the middle.

What's-his-name elected RNC Chair

I am soooo happy that the elections are over and we now have new Chairmen for the Republican Party of Florida and the Republican National Committee.  Now we can all unite and work together for victory in 2012.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dave Bitner for the first time yesterday and can see what people like about him.  He is a warm, personable guy and has a deep love and enthusiasm for conservative politics.  I talked to a lot of people at the RPOF Quarterly meeting this weekend and even those who were supporting other candidates expressed a positive opinion about Bitner, so I was not surprised when he won on the second ballot. 

As for the RNC Chair, I've never met any of the candidates, but I am definitely very relieved that the Committee has moved on from Michael Steele.  I would like to give Steele the benefit of the doubt, but in my opinion, he deserves at least some of the harsh criticism he received for two key problems.  First problem was his insistence on inserting himself inappropriately into the political arena, often leading to cringe-worthy quotes that embarrassed the Party.  

The second failing of Steele's term was his failure to respect and work with the grassroots.  He spent a ridiculous amount of money on the "Fire Pelosi" bus tour, but appeared to have been attended almost exclusively by campaign staffers and those who were already committed Republican volunteers, and garnered very little media attention.  It was a lot of money to spend on a photo-op that, as far as I can tell, earned few, if any, actual  new votes for Republican candidates.  Steele also made the decision to drastically reduce the funding, or even outright cancel, many aspects of the party's GOTV ("get out the vote") programs that had been so successful for the GOP for several election cycles.  There were several races around the country where the Republican lost by a very narrow margin, and a more vigorous GOTV program, especially in the final 72 hours, could have made a difference.

Our new RNC chair is Wisconsin attorney Reince Priebus.  Fun fact: Priebus attended the University of Miami College of Law with our own Marco Rubio.  Hopefully Rubio can help remind his friend of the importance of respecting the conservative grassroots.  So far, Priebus is at least saying the right things.  Time will tell if he is also able to "walk the walk," but for now, I am hopeful.

There's been a lot of jokes and confusion about Priebus' name.  To help you learn how to pronounce it, here is a video from a Milwaukee news station announcing Priebus' election.  You can hear his name at the 12 second mark:

YouTube - Reince Priebus Voted New RNC Chairman

Watch the RNC Chair Debate

The candidates for Chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) will be having a debate tomorrow, January 3, at 1:00 pm EST, sponsored by The Daily Caller and Americans for Tax Reform.

You can watch the debate live at this website: RNCDebate.org

A behind-the-scenes look at the NRCC's 2010 strategy

Interesting article on Politico by Brad Todd and Mike Shields, who headed up the independent expenditure efforts for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), about their successful strategies for the 2010 elections:

Politico | Opinion: How the NRCC won in 2010 

There's some intriguing stuff about the NRCC's strategy from the beginning, to aggressively target Democrats in conservative-leaning districts:

Our independent expenditure unit was spun out of the NRCC and given four guiding principles: 1) maximize dollars by acting early to broaden the playing field; 2) never let a local storyline stray from the national narrative; 3) force “red” districts to perform “red,” even if the incumbent is popular, and 4) upgrade our quantitative research and media production values to customize each race. 

We stuck to these principles throughout the fall, and -- to our great surprise -- the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee never tried to force us off our game. All our hard funding decisions were between competing opportunities in long-shot races – never between one of our very public early targets and new opportunities. 

Perhaps most significant, these strategic principles were not formed in the swell of a wave -- they guided the NRCC since January, 2009. Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) created a challenger-focused, aggressive NRCC and viewed House control as the only acceptable outcome -- even as many in Washington saw this as a two-cycle project.

The mindset from the early days, installed and enforced by the NRCC’s Executive Director Guy Harrison, was “play offense” and “cause chaos” -- and the IE unit was set up as an extension of this philosophy.

To win a majority in one election, the NRCC had to make the playing field larger than just the Democratic “war babies,” who had won in 2006 and 2008 as part of the vote against President George W. Bush. We needed a playing field that gave us 80 opportunities to win 39 seats...

...The best use of scarce resources, we decided, was to start play early -- pushing the prospect of majority control to mobilize outside groups and donors to individual campaigns. The operational term became “make-a-race” and our rationale was simple: If we build it, they will come. 

We did build it. And they came -- both donors to candidates and third-party assistance from outside groups that had previously focused on Senate races. Federal Election Commission data shows the DCCC’s IE Unit out-spent the NRCC’s unit $62 million to $44 million in 2010, but the same reports show the other major third-party players on the conservative side out-spent their liberal counterparts.

Also interesting is the discussion of the decision to make the health care bill a central theme of the election:

The health care vote, while consistently not the toughest hit in quantitative surveys, provoked a more visceral reaction among voters than any other Democratic misstep. While independents objected to Democrats’ spending and debt, we found it was the health care vote that caused them to give up on the party as a congressional majority.

Focus group respondents in Rep. Scott Murphy’s upstate New York district were so agitated by his flip-flop to support health care reform that they began cursing our moderator.

When asking voters an open-ended question about their greatest hesitation to supporting their local Democratic candidate, the phrase “health care” came up more often than any other -- besides “Democrat.” In our most difficult races, we closed the campaign on health care.

New movement to draft Sarah Palin as RNC Chair

Saw this post on BigGovernment over the weekend:

Big Government | Love Or Hate Sarah, She’s The Best Pick For RNC Chair

Yes, we now have an online petition and a blog devoted solely to the idea of drafting Palin as Chair of the Republican Party:

...the answer can only be Sarah Palin. Why? Notwithstanding the reasons we have outlined here and here, it is because she will raise more money and command more control over the media narrative than ANY other Republican in the field. Seating Sarah would also set the Progressive-Democrats on their heels, forcing them to ratchet up their vile PR smear campaigns.

The problem for the Progressive smear machine, and they know it, is that the jig is up. More and more Americans are becoming aware of the Alinksy song and dance the Progressives have been running. Their charges of racism and labels of stupid and evil grow less and less effective every day.

The advantage for the Right is that the Progressives have no other strategy than to go vicious, so the Left will likely double down on the tactic. Doing so will only expose them as hypocrites when it comes to their claim of righteously elevating the narrative above cheap personal attacks, and working to solve our nation’s problems. 

Who more than Sarah Palin can inspire the Left to so publicly display their ugliness and contempt for American civility?

What do you think? Crazy idea, or so crazy it just might work?

At minimum, I think I can definitely agree that Michael Steele has unfortunately been a big, hot mess lately, and under the right circumstances, I would definitely support finding a way for Steele to make a grateful exit before we get much closer to the crucial midterm elections.