Behind closed doors, what do you think the "GOP Insiders" are feeling?

[sg0508]

I mean the people who give us the big old smile and bs lines (i.e. the Palins, Boehners, etc).  Do you actually think they believe the crap they spout? Do you think they believe that victory in November is a good possibility or do you get the feeling that at the end of the day when the cameras and lights are off, they actually believe, "we're effed?"

Just wondering.

[bgwah]

Boehner probably figures he'll at least get to be Speaker for a while if Obama wins.

[Fuzzybigfoot]

The meating probably went down like this.

[Lincoln Republican]

To begin with, Boehner realizes with Santorum or Gingrich as the nominee, his job as Speaker is done for.

[Bacon King]

Most insiders have never really been too interested in the 2012 election, IMO. Sure, they'll go through all the motions and take a win if they get one, of course, but I don't think the GOP establishment has really been banking on a GOP win at all; it certainly hasn't been a top priority.

Former RNC Haley Barbour, 2009:
"When I was chairman of the Republican National Committee the last time we lost the White House in 1992 we focused exclusively on 1993 and 1994. And at the end of that time, we had both houses of Congress with Republican majorities, and we’d gone from 17 Republican governors to 31. So anyone talking about 2012 today doesn’t have their eye on the ball.”

[TomC]

I think they are fretting about it a lot less than many on this forum.

[Napoleon]

The meating probably went down like this.

"Meating" is, I suppose, one of the more appropriate words to refer to what GOP insiders might be doing behind closed doors. Particularly when lights are off.

[© tweed]

Palin is not an insider, just a media personality.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Palin is not an insider, just a media personality.

^ I'm sure the real GOP insiders wish she would go away.

[TheGlobalizer]

Resignation to four more years of Obama.

[BigSkyBob]

None of you are even close to getting it.

The answer is "under siege." What is at stake for them is control of the Republican party. Winning, or losing, the next election matters to them, but, only a fraction as much as maintaining control over the Republican party. If they lose that, their power base is gone, perhaps forever.

The dominant emotion is probably panic, mixed heavily with buyer's remorse over Mitt Romney. They have no problem with Romney lying to Republican voters, or engaging in the politics of personal destruction. They merely object to how ineffectual and implausible his lies are, and, how counter productive any more negativity would be. The box is quite constricting. They can't run a positive campaign. They can no longer run a negative campaign. And, they can't convince the Republican electorate to eat the feces sandwich for reasons of "electability" given how unpopular and inept Romney has campaigned.

[Antonio the Sixth]

[LastVoter]

None of you are even close to getting it.

The answer is "under siege." What is at stake for them is control of the Republican party. Winning, or losing, the next election matters to them, but, only a fraction as much as maintaining control over the Republican party. If they lose that, their power base is gone, perhaps forever.

The dominant emotion is probably panic, mixed heavily with buyer's remorse over Mitt Romney. They have no problem with Romney lying to Republican voters, or engaging in the politics of personal destruction. They merely object to how ineffectual and implausible his lies are, and, how counter productive any more negativity would be. The box is quite constricting. They can't run a positive campaign. They can no longer run a negative campaign. And, they can't convince the Republican electorate to eat the feces sandwich for reasons of "electability" given how unpopular and inept Romney has campaigned.

Combination of those 2.

[Frodo]

As far as presidential elections go, they've given up on 2012 and are focusing on 2016.  They are probably going to place more resources on down-ballot races this year instead.   

[Middle-aged Europe]

They're feeling shock and awe.

[minionofmidas]

As far as presidential elections go, they've given up on 2012 and are focusing on 2016. 

Some of 'em, anyhow. Others are probably plotting Santorum's dinner with the fishes.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Palin is not an insider, just a media personality.

This. And if Obama doesn't remain office she becomes pretty irrelevant though she might not even realize this.

[Linus Van Pelt]

The GOP insiders understand that the party has a demographic problem on its hands, though not an insurmountable one. There are two ways out: either they shape social conservatism in a way that it starts to appeal more to non-Cuban Hispanics, or they regain serious ground among the prosperous suburbanites who left the party during the period 1988-2008. We are now kind of on the cusp where they don't require either group when the economy sucks and less affluent whites are really pissed off (and 2012 might still be a year like that), but basically under normal economic circumstances they are going to be in trouble. The party establishment has understood this for the better part of a decade; Bush Jr. and Rove were animated in both campaign style and policy by the Hispanic strategy, and Boehner has been basically onside with this. The general unpopularity of the Bush program and more specifically the cockup over immigration have made this approach temporarily untenable, but they are basically hoping to revive it with someone like Rubio or Jeb in 2016 or 2020.

But at least a play at the suburbs is a coherent alternative. This is where all these hack endorsements for Romney are coming from. The establishment's biggest fear is that the primary electorate will box the party into a sort of CARLHAYDEN-like position where it is too socially conservative and generally too unhinged for the suburbs (aside from the hard-core southern suburbs that are both evangelical and prosperous) and yet simultaneously too nationalist for the sort of religious aspirational Mexican-American who is at least a potential GOP voter (and who could be quite favorable of social conservatism of a certain kind). Even if it might turn out that the economy is bad enough, and the country white enough, to squeak out a narrow victory in 2012, Santorum still basically represents a road that the party doesn't want to go down in the long term.

[pbrower2a]

As far as presidential elections go, they've given up on 2012 and are focusing on 2016.  They are probably going to place more resources on down-ballot races this year instead.   

They have much to defend and little to gain. The Tea Party zealots and stealth candidates of 2010 have shown what they are: achievers of discord who have shown no relevance to the American future examples of how not to do politics. The best thing for the GOP in 2012 would be an electoral massacre that forces Republicans to redefine themselves.

[Wisconsin+17]

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Most americans are socially conservative. This election will show this to be true. Running a real conservative will get more, not fewer votes. Running away from the position will destroy the party.

[BigSkyBob]

As far as presidential elections go, they've given up on 2012 and are focusing on 2016.  They are probably going to place more resources on down-ballot races this year instead.   

They have much to defend and little to gain. The Tea Party zealots and stealth candidates of 2010 have shown what they are: achievers of discord who have shown no relevance to the American future examples of how not to do politics. The best thing for the GOP in 2012 would be an electoral massacre that forces Republicans to redefine themselves.

What a blatant example of wishful thinking. The "relevance" of the Tea Party will be shown over the next couple of decades in a series of elections, and, not by amateur prognosticators on the internet. The "best thing" for every party in every Presidential election is to win. It may very well be the "best thing" for a partisan Democrat to sew the seeds of defeatism in the other party, but, few Republicans are stupid enough to take such advice seriously.

[Politico]

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Most americans are socially conservative. This election will show this to be true. Running a real conservative will get more, not fewer votes. Running away from the position will destroy the party.

I agree that most Americans are socially conservative, like Mitt Romney, but most Americans also want the federal government out of their life for the most part. They don't want to replace Obama's Big Government with Santorum's Big Government.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

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Most americans are socially conservative. This election will show this to be true. Running a real conservative will get more, not fewer votes. Running away from the position will destroy the party.

I agree that most Americans are socially conservative, like Mitt Romney, but most Americans also want the federal government out of their life for the most part. They don't want to replace Obama's Big Government with Santorum's Big Government.

We certainly don't want to replace it with Romney's Big Mammon.

[Kevin]

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Most americans are socially conservative. This election will show this to be true. Running a real conservative will get more, not fewer votes. Running away from the position will destroy the party.

I agree that most Americans are socially conservative, like Mitt Romney, but most Americans also want the federal government out of their life for the most part. They don't want to replace Obama's Big Government with Santorum's Big Government.

Agreed with the last line,

The people who are behind Santorum. need to realize that he is just a lighter skinned Italian version of Obama on alot of economic & fiscal issues.

[LastVoter]

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Most americans are socially conservative. This election will show this to be true. Running a real conservative will get more, not fewer votes. Running away from the position will destroy the party.

Looks like we got someone to represent the views that the "nominee wasn't conservative enough" demographic. I wonder what kind of a voter are we still missing here at Atlas.