Darn You Mike Murphy
ConservativeFred ·
November 7, 2012 at 6:41am
I'm going by memory, and paraphrasing a podcast from earlier this year where Mike Murphy made a persuasive case that it was almost impossible for a conservative candidate to win a national election. If I recall correctly, Mike made the argument that a nominal conservative, such as Mitt Romney, would probably lose. The country had changed so much, both attitudinally and demographically, since Reagan's victories that a conservative victory would never happen. Conservatives are a minority.
And Mike Murphy was right.
Darn. Now what?
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Mar '11
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
Mr. Murphy is a fool and Romney was in no fashion a conservative.
Edited on November 7, 2012 at 6:47amMay '10
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
Romney's mistake was his love of numbers. Numbers don't drive people to the polls. Numbers don't sway swing voters. Romney has had some strong comments and speeches, but he talks too often like a CEO. Most voters want a leader, not a manager.
Mar '11
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
As long as there is a liberal media, the Republican candidate will always be "dangerously conservative."
Apr '11
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
Rush Limbaugh will be on tomorrow saying "trust me folks, conservatism always wins." Which it does, except when it doesn't.
Jan '12
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
"Conservative" is not an immutable, static ideology. We create it, we shape it, we carry it out. We just need to reassess the priorities of the conservative movement, in light of the new coalition that the President has put together. We needn't become "Obama-lite" or a bizarro-Clintonian "third-way" party, but we do need to examine the degree to which ideological purity is worth increasing political marginalization, as well as attempting to figure out which elements of conservative thought we most need to carry forward and which can be marginalized, edited, shifted, or ditched outright going into 2014, 2016, and beyond.
Edited on November 7, 2012 at 6:55amMay '10
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
Ideology is only part of what defines a candidacy. Another part is style/charisma. Another policy proposals. Another campaigning.
When a campaign fails or succeeds, pollsters and politicos provide useful statistics. But they stink at analysis.
Oct '12
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
The country is still center-right just like Reagan was. The problem is that the Republican Party has move far to the right of Reagan.
May '10
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
Too conservative? It's guys like Murphy who "handled" Romney, just as they did with McCain. And once again we see the results. This guy shouldn't have gotten anywhere near a constituent's tour of the White House, let alone get reelected.
Romney should've taken it to Obama with everything he had. I believe his measured response to this radical hack cost him the election. It's sickening that the Republican establishment is still, in the end, calling the shots. Now we're all, um...nevermind.
Edited on November 7, 2012 at 7:25amMay '11
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
I understand that we are all upset right now. But I think that the lesson learned here is not that Romney did things wrong.
I believe that the Republican party is in trouble and needs to change quickly. Appeal to women and minorities more. It is the only way.
Apr '11
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
Romney was the only one who could win.
Mccain was the only one who could win
Dole was the only one who could win.
We haven't chosen a conservative candidate in the last three losing cycles. Why is it conservatism that is a loser? We don't appear to be picking conservative candidates.
Dec '10
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
That is the silliest comment of the night! The Republican Establishment, including Mitt Romney, are far to the left of Ronald Reagan. I worked for the 1980 Reagan campaign and had a back stage pass which provided an up-close and personal view of Reagan's principles and philosophy.
May '12
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
jetstream
That is the silliest comment of the night! The Republican Establishment, including Mitt Romney, are far to the left of Ronald Reagan. I worked for the 1980 Reagan campaign and had a back stage pass which provided an up-close and personal view of Reagan's principles and philosophy. · in 1 minute
This.
Jun '10
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
More hardball or more "reaching out" ? What does Murph suggest?
Murphy isn't a conservative but he advises us all about what the problems are in our approach.
Murphy is a close friend of Romney's. What suggestions of Murphy's did Romney not follow? Romney followed Murphy's points to the letter, I suspect.
Murphy helped out in California with Meg Whitman, too. Huge loss there.
Who was telling Romney not to go after Obama? Obama went after Romney in an ugly way -- with lies and lies. Romney didn't respond for months. Sounds a little like George W, too, doesn't it? Would Newt have sat back and been a punching bag?
Really, it just didn't make sense that the debate performances could have been part of the plan. Was it? Who could have let things go so long?
The debates were a fluke. They gave us us false help and temporarily vindicated Murphy-type advice. Look where it got us.
Is Murphy working for the other side?
Apr '11
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
Murphy isn't working for the other side. He just prefers not to try to make an argument in a campaign. Arguments are messy and if they aren't easy to explain they confuse people. I get his point and it would work in media enviroment that was close to equal. That is not the game we have though. The media is overwhelmingly hostile. You have to have a good argument and propose it over and over and be able to articulate it well. If possible it has to be a broad based argument that the left doesn't understand well enough to demagogue.
Jun '10
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
You have to go after the media -- they are the other side. We can't let them control the message. We have to treat them like political rivals and stop feeding any part of their pretense at being observers. They are participants in the election -- they carry 10 to 15% of the vote with them. We have to fight. Murphy is dead wrong. He's involved with losing elections. He has to come up with excuses and so he blames us. Only Newt understands this stuff and he alone has had a success against them. He and Reagan -- and that's about all in the last 30 years or so.
But, any person who tells a candidate not to fight is a fool.This is what Rove and Murphy tell us all the time. They are wrong and they are guiding us down the road to ruin.
The enemy must first be identified. This is primary.
The media can be defeated. But, they have to be identified as the enemy that they so obviously are.
Mar '11
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
This country is not center right anymore. That's done. And it's not coming back. This country is in the left on government/fiscal issues, and libertarian on social issues. Conservatism, as defined by Burke and Buckley, is dying out.
Mar '11
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
Few Republicans were more opposed Romney in the primaries than I was. But we have to be honest; Romney ran a pretty good campaign in the general. We complain that he didn't raise this or that issue... Libya for instance... but he didn't because outside of conservatives, people just didn't care about Libya. They just don't. They want "fairness" (read: big tax increases on "those rich guys") and freebies. I think the horrible truth is that Romney did about as well as any GOP candidate could have done. And for nought.
Jul '10
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
Conservative Fred, I don't see how you can say that when the election count was Obama: 54,773,837 and Romney: 53,716,689. If we were a minority would the numbers be this close?
May '11
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
Beach Baby
Conservative Fred, I don't see how you can say that when the election count was Obama: 54,773,837 and Romney: 53,716,689. If we were a minority would the numbers be this close? · 1 hour ago
Obama is perhaps the worst President in this nation's history, the economy is anemic, and we had an ambassador murdered (pick one of a 100's of other issues such as "fast and furious"), and yet the election was lost. How could it be argued that conservatives are anything but a minority.
May '11
Re: Darn You Mike Murphy
I spent a fair amount of time pondering that podcast last spring, and sadly, spent a fair amount of time denying its veracity this fall.
Attitudinally - Those individuals with a conservative attitude (family, faith, liberty, industriousness, etc...) are a decided minority in the U.S. Perhaps they always were a minority, BUT, culturally they were emulated by the majority of the population. There are still vestiges of this mentality, but it died as a dominant theme in America over the past 20 years.
Demographically - The recent wave of immigrants, on the balance, has a collectivist mentality, and has not demonstrated any affinity for the concept of the "melting pot." There is a strong preference for the welfare state.
These 2 themes will guarantee future conservative losses.
It is dispiriting, but darnit, Mike Murphy was correct.