What is wrong with the Republican Party - Part 1

I have been writing this series in my head for the last 3 months since the Republicans lost the Presidential election.  By all indications, they should have been able to win easily.  The economy still wasn't speeding along, unemployment was high, inflation for basic needs was up (Note, I don't care what government agencies say, I feel the prices every time I get gas or go to the grocery store). There was an American Ambassador killed in Libya just before the election.  All of this should have added up to a significant Republican victory if not an outright landslide.  So what went wrong?  In my opinion, a whole bunch of things.

First they put forward an incredibly competent, but wholly unexciting candidate.  Mitt Romney would have made a fine President, but he was sorely lacking in the charisma department.  In this age of American Idol, and reality TV in general, you need a candidate that will excite the voters and Mitt just was not it.

Second is the media, but that is a topic for a post of its own.  Come back later for that one.

A related problem is messaging.  They have got to have a coherent message with broad appeal, and a way to get it out.  The Democrat message is Vote for us and we'll give you sh*t and make rich people pay.  If the only news you get is from mainstream media or Comedy Central, the Republican message is we hate women, minorities and old people, take stupid pledges, and refuse to raise taxes on anyone.  Not a very appealing message if you are in one of the first three categories, or part of the large percentage of folks that pay no income taxes, or actually use tax credits and get more back than you pay in.  Plus Democrats will give you sh*t.

 To wrap up this post, it appears that the Republican ground game on election day was horrible.  Democrats have lots of community organizers in their camp (Think Acorn, or whatever they call themselves now, and oh yeah the President).  They know how to get their people to the polls (in some areas multiple times).  From what I have read they made excellent use of the latest technologies and got their voters to the polls.  In contrast, Republicans aren't big into the community organizing thing, and there are reports of major technology failures on election day.  I'm a Software Consultant maybe they should give me a call before the next cycle.  I'm pretty adept at developing software that won't crash just when you need it most.