Beautifully stated!

• There's much to like about Paul Ryan but I still can't get over his giving Biden a pass on his egregiously rude manner during the VP debate. Ryan, quite incredibly, also let Biden off on criticizing wars which he voted for as Senator. We need more fight than I suspect Ryan is able to put up
• I think John Thune would make a good candidate and I wanted him to run in '12 but he lost his chance-and me-with his decision to sit the election out
• Speaking of fight , where is Ted Cruz on this list?
• I'm not certain anyone on this list checks as many boxes as Governor Mike Pence does. I strongly suggest we watch out for him

Some unresolved uncertainty in my schedule but do mark me as highly likely!

Why do I suspect this was what Stuart Stevens constantly whispered into Mitt Romney's ear during the 'Obama is a nice guy' campaign?

Completely agree. The sort of vivid, focused exploration of specific issues documentaries offer is exactly what we need to re-take the narrative. I still don't get why conservative millionaires only want to give their money to fancy consultants to run TV ads. For example, where are the widely distributed documentaries that expose the heinous activities of planned parenthood, unmask  its eugenicist roots, and explain the ties between the democrat party and the abortion industry?  Why hasn't the story of the GOP led welfare reform of the 90s been told in documentary? Where are the well produced documentaries explaining the entitlement crisis to young voters? Where are the reform stories of our governors-on school choice for example?  It's going to have to be a 4 year campaign this time.

Pardon my going back to the Rubio thread. We do know as an unquestionable scientific fact that once someone dies, they stay dead, right? What if Rubio had been asked if he thought a man who allegedly lived about two thousand years ago could possibly have risen after three days?  Can anyone help with an answer to that?

So, the party that believes the nation's entitlement crisis is not urgent, that man-made global warming is an absolute and  unquestionable fact, that a baby in the womb-even at 8 months-has no intrinsic value worth protecting, that gender should have nothing to do with marriage or parenthood, that champions of cultural reformation are off-topic, that the best fix for our healthcare crisis is to expand government involvement, that candidate Mitt Romney was really a contraception-snatcher, and that holds sandra fluke up as a role model is the intellectual party? Really???

I'm starting to get the impression most of these GOP consultant types are simply unimaginative and have a tendency to be binary in thinking about how to position a candidate. I never understood the "Obama is a nice guy, our polls show most voters think so, therefore let's not attack him" approach. How about trying to change voters' minds on that? They think he's nice because no one has told them otherwise.

Beside, is it impossible to attack him-his worldview and not just his policies(if only that were effectively done!!!)-with a smile? He attacked Romney's honor as a business man in direct, personal and reprehensible ways and you couldn't push back with a mention of his only known business dealing-that fancy sweetheart scheme with the convicted felon, Tony Rezko? You couldn't mention that in a sad, disappointed tone while quickly pivoting back to the economy and dropping a little line(even if a stretch) about how deals like that make it impossible to reform fannie mae & freddie mac for the common man e.g Chris Dodd? 

I suspected we'd lose after reading this Stuart Stevens profile. Remember Steve Schmidt too? We sure know how to pick 'em.

Isn't there a difference between voters rejecting the conservative message and voters rejecting a caricature of the conservative message and in this case, messenger?

Just enough voters rejected Romney the plundering plutocrat, Romney the guy with no details whose math didn't add up, Romney the guy who'd take us back to the tax policies of Bush that led to the recession, Romney the contraception snatcher. This was relentlessly reinforced by the MSM and Romney's failure to aggressively offer a counter-narrative.

Sadly, these were such easily refutable lies but we perhaps found them so ridiculous, we underestimated how reasonable they might seem to someone who hears or reads them from NPR, the NYT, Washington Post, CNN etc. Between the image of Romney as a cold hearted job killer and Romney the immensely decent, generous job-creator, which do you think broke through into the mainstream?  Or even between the idea of liberal policies that saved the economy and auto industry and liberal policies that led to the recession and promote cronyism?
Which idea broke through to even potential Romney voters?

We'll not have success until we find a way around the MSM.

In that spirit, shouldn't we organize meet-ups across the country? No words or analysis necessary-just drinks and consoling hugs.

Thanks for a good laugh!

Well said.

Romney campaign statement: "With 23m Americans still out of work, this admin continues to play games. Yesterday, President Obama got power lifted and VP Biden made a failed attempt at power-lifting a stranger...America deserves better."

Are you being facetious? She looked insane up there. Did you see the clip at 5:03? I watched the whole thing with my mouth wide open.

Great point! It is absolutely a winning issue for Republicans if it's effectively communicated.