Health & Fitness
The Future Is Bright For The GOP (Blog)
Republicans have a great crop of rising stars who are stepping out from under the shadow of George W. Bush.
Here's something that shocked Republicans like me who were expecting a Romney win on Tuesday: my party still hasn't escaped the shadow of George W. Bush.
The economy was the number one issue, but exit polls show voters still blame Bush for our problems. They are willing to give President Obama more time.
Plus, a tactical move by the Obama campaign in Ohio turned out to be brilliant: attacking Romney on the auto bailout.
I keep going back to a pundit who asked early on if this election would be 1976 for Republicans or 1980.
His comments came following the Republican national convention, which put many rising GOP stars on display. With some big wins at the state level on Tuesday, we have a base upon to build a bright future for the party.
But with voters telling exit pollsters that they oppose raising taxes to fix the deficit, marriage equality scoring big wins, and even marijuana getting legalized in some states, I continue to contend that the country is moving in a libertarian direction.
I disagree with those in my party that assert we've got to nominate moderates to win -- we just did that. Mitt Romney was the best of the primary candidates (well, I voted for Tim Pawlenty at the straw poll) and ran a great campaign, but we now failed to win with a guy who emphasized fiscal issues and tried to run to the middle.
I also obviously think that gay people should be Republican and believe my party needs to stop conceding the minority vote.
But a stronger economic message must be the overriding priority of the next generation of Republican leaders. Former President Bill Clinton set the tone for the Democratic campaign by telling voters not to "go back" to the Bush policies and President Obama wisely followed his lead.
We've now had two candidates -- McCain and Romney -- who failed to tell voters why GOP economic policies would grow the economy in comparison to Democratic policies. Now that we are escaping the shadow of Bush II, it's up to the new generation of Republicans to set the tone.