The Roomba Republicans

Bob McCarty analogizes the Republicans' sputtering efforts to formulate a coherent message.

The long-exposure photo [below], captured by Signaltheorist, shows the 30-minutes-long path of a Roomba® robotic vacuum cleaner.

Appearing to have chaos and disorganization at the core of its effort, it reminds this blogger of the recently-announced effort to rebrand the Republican Party which threaten to leave conservative-first party members in a political vacuum.

I'm not as down on the spasmodic efforts of the GOP.

Thanks to Mark Levin, conservatives have a basis for repelling Statism and the soft tyranny of the Obamacrats:

Call it Liberty.

GOP 2.0 - resuscitating the brand

Paul Mirengoff, writing at Powerline:

The Democrats appear to have picked up another House seat in a formerly "safe" Republican district tonight. The latest win for the Dems comes in Mississippi where Travis Childers, a county chancery clerk, seems to have edged out Greg Davis, a mayor. President Bush carried this district twice with about 60 percent of the vote each time. But Childers ran as a strong social conservative (Ed: pro-life and pro-gun).

...my takeaway is that the Republican brand is in such bad shape that the Dems can win virtually anywhere if they nominate a candidate whose position on key issues is, or can be made to seem, close to that of the Republican... Fortunately, the Democrats will not nominate such a candidate for president. And the Republican nominee, whether we feel comfortable about it or not, isn't necessarily seen as intimately associated with the Republican brand. Even so, I think that Republican nominee is running uphill.

Indeed. The Republican brand has lost its way. I believe that it's time for citizens to rise up and demand a new Republican Party! I'm calling it GOP 2.0. And I'm perfectly willing to throw out those "Republicans" who are stuck on stupid -- and are stuck in the GOP 1.0 world.

The tenets:

STRENGTHEN NATIONAL DEFENSE - increase the size, capability and efficiency of our Armed Forces, bringing back our defense spending to historical levels as percentage of GDP.

GAIN ENERGY INDEPENDENCE - open up ANWR and the OCS to exploration; aggressively pursue nuclear energy and green technologies; and incent private industry to aggressively pursue clean, renewable energy sources.

SECURE THE BORDERS - build physical barriers immediately as a precursor to an overarching, sensible immigration policy. If the boat's sinking, you plug the holes first.

DEATH TO EARMARKS - zero tolerance for earmarks.

DEATH TO CORRUPTION - zero tolerance for corruption.

ENGLISH AS NATIONAL LANGUAGE - national unity requires a national language. That language is English.

IMPLEMENT FLAT TAX OR FAIR TAX - simplify the tax system by eradicating a tax code gone mad.

REDUCE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT - provide "whistleblower-style" awards for reducing the size of government and task the IRS (which will no longer have to worry about enforcing the tax code) with achieving the reduction goals on an annual basis

SPUR HEALTHCARE COMPETITION - Address health-care deficiencies - with competitive, free-market solutions, not Government largesse.

ADDRESS ENTITLEMENTS - engage a bipartisan consortium to create a multi-million dollar competition to incent teams from private industry and academia to create solutions for our social security and Medicare liabilities.

This should not be a platform. It should be a promise -- an ironclad commitment -- to voters.

I'm asking for help here. If you agree, please email this post to your friends and/or post it on your blog (no credit or link needed). We need to resuscitate the Republican brand. ASAP.

Update: A Jacksonian published a comprehensive platform of similar traits in 2006.
Linked by: Gateway Pundit, Fausta, Jo's Cafe and Vanderleun. Thanks!

Update II: Reclaim Conservatism: rebooting the GOP!

DNC endorses Huckabee: an "Easy Kill" in General Election

 
Ace provides the latest election scoops, including the National Review's endorsement of Mitt Romney (hat tip: Larwyn):

Surprising? A bit. I really don't know how much pull NR has though. From my comments and emails, I gather NR is viewed very suspiciously by a large swath of the conservative electorate, which views them as meddlesome yuppie RINOs.

Meanwhile, also from Drudge, Democrats have been instructed to avoid all criticism of Huckabee, viewing him as an "easy kill" in the general election...

Democrat party officials are avoiding any and all criticism of Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee, insiders reveal... The Democratic National Committee has told staffers to hold all fire, until he secures the party's nomination... The directive has come down from the highest levels within the party, according to a top source.

Within the DNC, Huckabee is known as the "glass jaw -- and they're just waiting to break it."

In the last three weeks since Huckabee's surge kicked in, the DNC hasn't released a single press release criticizing his rising candidacy... The last DNC press release critical of Huckabee appeared back on March 2nd.

...In fact, as the story broke over the weekend that Huckabee said he wanted to isolate AIDS patients back in 1992, the DNC ignored the opportunity to slam the candidate from the left.

"He'll easily be their McGovern, an easy kill," mocked one senior Democrat operative Tuesday morning from Washington.

Iowans take note.