GOP Rebranding kickoff draws 100 attendees at a pizzeria; paking lot full of Obama bumper stickers

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Republicans kick off campaign to shine party image

By Rebecca Sinderbrand
CNN

ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) -- Three prominent GOP leaders kicked off a campaign Saturday to reshape their party's image, gathering at a restaurant in northern Virginia for the first of a series of town hall meetings.

The goal of the initiative, called the National Council for a New America, is to connect Republican leaders with voters across the country to help get the party's electoral fortunes back on track.

"Certainly our party has taken its licks the last few cycles, but that's why we're here," House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said Saturday. "The reality is, the prescriptions coming out of Washington right now are not reflective of the mainstream of this country."

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said it's time for Republicans "to listen a little bit, learn a little bit." He advised Republicans to work on the party's message and "not be so nostalgic."

"I would say you can't beat something with nothing. The other side has something. I don't like it, but they have it," said Bush, who praised President Obama's tactical approach to politics and commended his 2008 campaign as "forward-looking."

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney compared the GOP to Americans fighting the British during the Revolutionary War. "We are the party of the revolutionaries, they are the party of the monarchists," he told the overwhelmingly Republican crowd, saying the Republicans needed to "once again lead the American Revolution."

Romney blamed Washington for setting in motion policies that led to the collapse of the housing market, and painted his party's minority status as a boon.

"We have an advantage," said the former Republican presidential candidate. "When a party has the White House, communication comes top down, and there's a strategy that everyone has to march behind." Instead, he said, the GOP had the option of drawing its strategy from the grassroots.

"We don't have to come up with all the answers today. Thank goodness, we have a little time," he said. "Certainly by 2010, we better."

The venue -- a packed pizzeria in an Arlington strip mall -- had the feel of a small-town campaign stop Saturday morning, with a supportive crowd tossing friendly questions at the panel. But outside the front doors of the establishment were reminders of the challenges facing the party.

The parking lot out front, even with the heavily Republican crowd inside, was dotted with Obama bumper stickers. Northern Virginia has shifted solidly Democratic in recent elections, and surrogates for John McCain's campaign made statements late in the race that acknowledged the party had all but conceded the area.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/02/gop.townhall/index.html

GOP leaders launch listening tour

With the party at its lowest standing in several decades, Republicans on Saturday launched a listening tour in the heart of the Democratic suburbs, where several of the party’s leading voices steered clear of hot-button issues and instead emphasized the need to advance new policy ideas to revive the party's prospects.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor and former Republican governors Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney – both frequently mentioned as potential 2012 GOP presidential candidates – spoke to about 100 attendees at a pizzeria in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Va.. The event was the first held by the newly launched National Council for a New America.

They chose Pie-tanza, a small independently owned pizzeria in a suburban strip mall, that Cantor deemed "emblematic of thousands of small businesses across America," a symbol Republicans hope to harness as they re-couch their free-market principles in response to President Obama. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22020.html