The Republican Party needs to do some soul searching according to two of the country’s top political strategists.
David Plouffe, senior White House advisor and Steve Schmidt, chief strategist for John McCain’s 2008 campaign spoke about a disconnect they’ve observed between GOP candidates and the voters.
Schmidt says extreme positions on social issues by some GOP candidates and pundits perpetuate this divide.
“Conservative, for too many voters in this country, has been synonymous with absolute looniness over the last couple of election cycles,” said Schmidt.
Plouffe agrees, saying Mitt Romney hasn’t done the party any favors in recent days by telling his supporters that he lost the election because of President Obama’s so-called “gifts” to voters.
“Gifts to the Latino community by saying that Dream Act kids [would] not be deported over the next couple of years, gifts to the poor and African Americans with health care. That says a fundamental misreading about what happened,” said Plouffe.
[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/plouffe-schmidt.mp3|titles=Click here to listen to David Plouffe and Steve Schmidt's discussion in its entirety.]
The two men also found common ground on what's necessary to avoiding the looming ‘fiscal cliff’. They say Democrats and Republicans need to display a real willingness to seek a realistic compromise.
Schmidt says for the past ten years, the GOP has been a big spending party, but it doesn’t want to pay the bill.
“So a reset of traditional conservatism requires that we be reality-based on the fiscal condition of the country and understand that the years of profligacy now require increased revenue,” said Schmidt.
Schmidt argues that lobbyist Grover Norquist’s no tax increase pledge doesn’t facilitate the kind of landscape necessary to address the possible economic consequences should automatic spending cuts and tax hikes associated with the fiscal cliff take place come New Year’s Day.
Plouffe and Schmidt are encouraged to hear House Speaker John Boehner and other Republicans address the need for closing tax loopholes and reducing deductions.
The two University of Delaware grads spoke in Newark Wednesday night to close out the school’s Road to the Presidency speaker program and was heard live on WDDE.