GOP adopts changes to 2016 presidential primary process

[brooklynite]

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN) - The Republican National Committee gave near-unanimous approval Friday to a package of rules changes that would condense the 2016 presidential nominating calendar and move the party's national convention to June.

The changes ensure that the June 2016 Republican convention will be the earliest convention in either party since 1948.

The moves, crafted in private in recent months by a small group of party officials representing both the party's establishment and grassroots wings, are designed to help the party avoid the kind of protracted Republican infighting that dented GOP nominee Mitt Romney's general election appeal in 2012.

...snip...

The party is also taking steps to exert more control over Republican primary debates their moderators, but will vote on proposed changes later this year.

Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/24/gop-adopts-changes-to-2016-presidential-primary-process/?hpt=hp_t2

[DFW]

1. "more control over Republican primary debates "

i.e. Fox "News" decides the moderators, the questions, the answers, and even who the candidates are.

That'll be about as exciting as watching paint dry, and intellectually just about as stimulating.

[djean111]

2. Bwahahaha! Mitt Romney had no appeal to dent!

The only thing that would have helped him is if he and his wife just shut up.

[bobGandolf]

3. Smart move on their part. n/t

[cyberswede]

4. Doesn't that mean they'll get their convention bump way too early?

Then the Democrats can have their convention (and bump) closer to the election.

[JustAnotherGen]

5. My thought too

I'm wondering if they are planning on losing in 2016 - and I generally could care less about 2016 . . . but this is an interesting move on their part.

[rurallib]

6. thus by Labor Day they will hardly be a bump in the road.

probably being flattened by the Clinton steamroll.

[Jeff Murdoch]

23. I don't think they care about that.

I think it is more about having 2 extra months to sell a unified set of talking points to the M$M attacking the Democrats, instead of each other.

[cyberswede]

24. Good point!

Welcome to DU.

[SharonAnn]

31. It could mean that they can spend General Campaign money sooner than the Dems can.

That wouldn't be good for us. Imagine a couple of months of non-stop attack ads against our presumptive candidate(s) with no ability to respond.

[cosmicone]

7. aka "The Jeb Bush Rule" n/t

[bucolic_frolic]

8. As usual the reactionaries are going backward

This will give the GOP nominee 3 more months to jet around the country
in a look-a-like Air Force One and assume the role of Old Pretender, akin
to James Stuart

They will use this 3 month period to attempt to avoid the Romney-Dukakis
strategy of staying above the fray and inadvertently allowing the opposition
candidate to define them

(I couldn't believe the Romney camp didn't see the parallel, and I just about
knew the election was over by July 4, 2012)

But is the public ready for an extra three months??? Three more months of
negativity, TV ads, more journalists' time

It's got as many risks as it does benefits

And will mean another 3 months to attack Hillary

Perhaps it's a war of attrition. A young candidate to outlast the elder opposition,
who by election day will appear tired and spent.

Rubio-Ryan v. Clinton-Biden

Democratic Party better take the youth concept seriously

[starroute]

9. Partly it has to do with money

There are two separate pots of campaign funds, one for the primary season and the other for the general election, and there are limits on how much any individual can donate to each. By having the convention earlier, they can start digging onto their general campaign funds that much sooner.

[Cryptoad]

10. Wow

2016 is gong to be the best Ass Clown Contest Ever!!!! Ever!!!!!!

[jmowreader]

11. They misinterpreted 2012

In the Republican view, they lost 2012 because a primary season that was too long allowed the Democrats to use a too-long series of debates to define their candidate. The way they are going to win 2016 is to define the candidate themselves.

In my view, they lost 2012 because the majority of the American people didn't think any of their candidates were fit to be president. If you're running a candidate you have to turn into a man of the people you're basically screwed; you're completely screwed if he comes out of the process less human than when he went in, you're really screwed.

I don't know what the solution to their problems is. Well, actually I do but they'll never accept it: quit preaching tax cuts and deregulation as the Solution To All Our Problems when those are the things that caused the problems in the first place. Quit screaming about Freedom and Equality while you scheme to reduce both for half the population. And remove the word Benghazi from your vocabulary.

[davidpdx]

22. That is exactly what I was thinking when I read that

Too many debates in 2012 (and in 2008). Plus it means they have to switch to GE funds earlier so they end up tapping out their big donors with another month or two of campaign and ads to run. It is ass backwards.

[DallasNE]

12. Can't Make A Silk Purse Out Of A Sow's Ear

Excuse me, but Romney's failures were not caused by the nominating process. It was Romney being caught on tape making an ill-conceived comment about the 47% and his seething "performance" in the foreign policy debate where Candy Crowley fact checked him on his Benghazi claims. What the Republican's really need is a message that resonates with the American people. As it is, they have lost the popular vote in 4 out of the 5 most recent presidential elections. None of these changes touches on that. Republicans have become too extreme for the electorate.

[yellowcanine]

13. "Moving deck chairs on the Titanic"

[maindawg]

14. Rules

They love rules. The stymied any debate at their last convention. They dont like debate. They like lockstep. They like fascist style politics. Already they are starting with their attacks on women. Soon they will attack gays and poor people. Its their MO. They dream of a country where only wealthy white people can vote. They frighten people with never ending bullshit. Promoting false premises with hate speech.
Its a tired old practice that died a long time ago yet they cling to it and push a more severe form everyday. They know strong hate appeals to their base. Only 33 % of Americans identify with this but every one of them vote.
We must work harder to ensure that every democrat votes. We must make it clear to the people that it is a responsibility to vote. That voting is not a right that yu can take for granted because if the Fascists win, voting will not be a right at all.
On one hand its almost comical to watch these assholes fall over one another to be as radical as possible without actually going to prison.Its almost like a game of chicken. I think they fear the crazy teabillies also. Trying to put that genie back in the box.
It will be entertaining to watch them eat one another again. And they will.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. These people REFUSE to admit it's their IDEAS that made them lose.

[Auntie Bush]

25. Thank Goodness! I hope they never change and

get lost in the dust bin of history.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

26. It is kinda nice to see all the bad ideas concentrated in one place.

[safeinOhio]

16. Every thing they try, seems

to backfire.

I predict a big landslide for the Democratic Party.

[xxqqqzme]

17. sorry, that was no dent.

Romney was using a sledge hammer on his 'appeal'.

[Gore1FL]

18. I guess they realize their convention bumps haven't been worthwhile as of late.

Of course, neither have their candidates.

[blkmusclmachine]

19. Shuffling the chairs on the deck of the USS Titanic. Good luck with that!

[Archae]

20. How about they give the candidates an IQ test, first?

[thefool_wa]

21. Now all they need to do

Is force the Tea Party into its OWN party so that they stop counting as republicans when it comes to who controls the houses. Of course that move only helps the Dems, so it will never happen, even though there has to be something shady about it.

[Agnosticsherbet]

27. This will give them more time to shake the etch-a-sketch

and pretend to move back from the extreme, radical right wing.

They know they have to appeal to independents and moderates to win, and what people have to say to win the nomination scares the political independents.

[Wounded Bear]

28. They should just go all "The Quick and the Dead" for their primaries...

Not the earlier, good one with Sam Elliot, but the Hackman/Stone travesty.

I'm sure the NRA would endorse it, and the world would be shed of a lot of idiots in one election cycle.

[kairos12]

29. There goes my favorite reality TV show.

[Xolodno]

30. This could backfire bad...

....what if one of their worst looney toons gets the win? In the general election, he could really say some whacky shit and sink fast in the polls. The longer process vet's out the crazies...imagine if a crazy gets the nominee and says "a woman's place is in the kitchen and slavery was an honest institution"....the election is over then.