Alternative Medicine For The G.O.P.: No Weirdos Wanted

"I did it. So what? There is no sympathy."

-- Nathan Burris, the San Francisco Bay Area's "Toll Plaza Killer," defending himself in court by sounding a lot like the current manifestation of America's right-wing.

Bobby Jindal has put a few ideas on the table for how the Republican Party can get back in the groove again. Most are common sense - something, somehow, lacking these days, even with so many leading lights in the Right's firmament. Because I've been arguing them for some time now, I'm particularly fond of numbers three through five:

3. Reject identity politics. The old notion that ours should be a colorblind society is the right one, and we should pursue that with vigor. Identity politics is corrosive to the great American melting pot and we reject it. We will treat all people as individuals rather than as members of special interest groups. 

4. Stop being the stupid party. It's time for a new Republican party that talks like adults. It's time for us to articulate our plans and visions for America in real terms. We had a number of Republicans damage the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments. Enough of that. 

5. Stop insulting the intelligence of voters. We need to trust the smarts of the American people. We have to stop dumbing down our ideas and stop reducing everything to mindless slogans and tag lines for 30-second ads. We must be willing to provide details in describing our views.

I don't know. The first part of not "being the stupid party" is admitting how stupid they are, but - insulting our intelligence further - they ain't there yet. Like a bunch of NewAgers (man, it's depressing to write that) they want revenge, or vindication, not a mirror.

Mitt Romney has been publicly quiet since his brief remarks on election night, but he told his top donors on a conference call yesterday that Barack Obama had won by giving “very generous” freebies to key constituencies, including blacks, Hispanics and young people. 

“The president’s campaign,” Romney said, “focused on giving targeted groups a big gift, so he made a big effort on small things. Those small things, by the way, add up to trillions of dollars.” 

Romney surely didn’t mean for his remarks to become public, but he probably shouldn’t be surprised that they leaked. After all, the same thing happened when he told donors earlier this year that 47 percent of the electorate would vote for Obama “no matter what” – because they “believe that they are victims” and that “they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.” 

A tape of those comments emerged in September, and Romney eventually repudiated them and spent the rest of the campaign insisting that he would be a president for “the 100 percent.” That he’s still disparaging Obama’s coalition behind closed doors all but confirms that his campaign trail pleadings were insincere. It also reinforces the worst image of Romney, as a sneering plutocrat who has contempt for the common man.

It's a little late, but it might help if Jindal could add "stop picking stupid liars for our leaders" to his list of suggestions. Not that some would notice:

Mitt Romney was a fine candidate. He was a fine candidate — and so was Ryan — even with the media spinning everything they could against him.

-- Ann Althouse, clearly out to lunch, probably with another glass of wine.

Sheesh. Here's my "common man" suggestion to the Repubs:

Find anyone hated by the likes of Ann Althouse, Glenn Reynolds, etc., and run with them. 

The dislike of the elitist right-wing professor/blogger class has to indicate some level of integrity - and then we're halfway home. It'll work like a charm:

Just nominate someone talking sense - and who is unwavering on it - then wait for the blogosphere's collective freakout. 

Voila! You've got your candidate. Face it:

Credibility's like Kryptonite to these people,…