Pete Spiliakos

Jim Geraghty argues that it wasn’t conservative ideals that took a beating in the election. It was the message of hostility, contempt and general weirdness of some of the center-right’s messengers that was the problem. Geraghty cites Romney’s 47% comment, Rush Limbaugh calling . . . . Continue Reading »

The folks at this AEI panel were big on the importance of conservatives listening to rather than just talking at people who are not already on that side. So in that spirit, I’m going to give an example of a Republican politician listening . . . to conservatives..on health care. That . . . . Continue Reading »

Several of the participants at yesterday’s AEI forum focused on the need for Republicans to first “listen” to constituencies they want to win over. That is true of course, but one of our insightful regular commenters (Pseudoplotinus) pointed to the risks of this approach: I found . . . . Continue Reading »

I take the conservative despair at Obama’s reelection as being mostly a good thing. Last week’s butt kicking was a long time coming and a major policy and rhetorical rethink is in order. The good news is that it happening. I’m not sure that I agree with everything last thing said . . . . Continue Reading »

Bret Stephens wants the GOP to “get a grip” and “tone down the abortion extremism.” So let’s do a hypothetical exercise. Imagine that the 2012 Republican nominee believed in the rape, incest and life of the mother exceptions to abortion restrictions. Now let us further . . . . Continue Reading »

Daniel Larison kindly linked to my post on the Republican (really center-right), communications problem. Larison continues to say “What Spiliakos overlooks is that the GOP won’t benefit from explaining their views more intelligibly so long as those views continue to be associated for . . . . Continue Reading »

A poll of Republican “insiders” reveals that Marco Rubio is the early favorite for 2016. I don’t take it seriously as presidential election speculation, but I take it very seriously as evidence of the climate of opinion among Republican functionaries. It reveals a combination of . . . . Continue Reading »

I guess a lot of you   have seen the video of Karl Rove disputing Fox News’s call of Ohio for Obama. It is interesting how hard the anchors, decision desk, and Michael Barone went at Rove. I also think it shows something of the divided nature of Fox News. A while back I wrote about the . . . . Continue Reading »

So I’ll be fast. 1. Maybe there aren’t as many missing voters as Sean Trende thinks. Figuring where Romney underperformed with whites (not his biggest problem), will have to wait until more of the votes are counted. According to the exit polls Romney won white voters by 59% to 39% for . . . . Continue Reading »

1.  Obama’s popular vote total ended up tracking his RCP job approval average very closely.  That’s why I always thought it would be tough for Romney to win as long as Obama’s job approval was between 49%-50%. 2.  I blew the call on Scott Brown.  The Obama tide . . . . Continue Reading »