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The Spectacle Blog
Phil, Quin, Joe: Can we all agree, given Steele’s antics, that Mike Duncan got screwed?
Duncan, you’ll recall, was practically the invisible man during his tenure as RNC Chairman. He wasn’t on TV much because that wasn’t his strength; unlike a lot of party chairs, he wasn’t a politician but a veteran behind-the-scenes operator (he started as a precinct captain and worked his way up the ranks of the party over several decades). His strength, rather, was actually running the RNC. He took over in January 2007, a couple months after his party suffered a crushing electoral defeat in the 2006 midterms, and served through the end of 2008, another very tough cycle for the GOP. Despite the handicaps of an unpopular Republican president and a nominee who didn’t exactly set the base’s heart on fire, the RNC broke fundraising records under his watch.
In the wake of Obama’s victory, Duncan made an easy scapegoat for the party’s problems. The impulse to clean the slate and elect a new leader after an electoral disaster was perhaps understandable, and Duncan probably didn’t help matters by seeming amusingly out of touch with the Web 2.0 fads that the RNC Chair candidates running against him were falling over themselves to embrace.
But now the RNC has a Chairman who is on TV all the time — and is constantly saying things that undercut the party. (When Howard Dean was DNC Chairman, the Democrats at least managed to convince their loose cannon leader to keep a low profile.) Fundraising is anemic, despite a much more favorable fundraising environment. (Sure, the economy is in bad shape, but I’ve still heard my think tank friends talking about how well they do when they hammer at Obama in fundraising letters; that the RNC can’t capitalize on this is just embarrassing.) I’m guessing that just about everyone in the Republican leadership misses Mike Duncan, except perhaps for Michael Steele himself.
View all comments (23) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by John Tabin
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/01/08/missing-mike-duncan
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Quin| 1.8.10 @ 3:57PM
Nope, can't agree. We desperately needed new blood. But the new blood we needed was Ken Blackwell, not Steele.
JP| 1.8.10 @ 3:57PM
I think the senior GOP leaders enjoy Steele. He's bound to keep the GOP in minority status. Steele perfectly represents the congressional Republicans at thier very best; he's arrogant, self absorbed, weak, and totally incompetent.
My prediction is the GOP will actually lose seats come November. He is Rahm Emmanal's greatest weapon.
Pingback| 1.8.10 @ 4:24PM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Missing Mike Duncan [sp links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Hank| 1.8.10 @ 4:25PM
I stopped giving to the GOP after the Dede Scozzafava debacle and I bet that was the tipping point for many others also.
yarrr| 1.8.10 @ 4:47PM
Um, I can't agree at all... nobody even knew who Mike Duncan was... he was nowhere to be seen... there's got to be some balance here...
Ken (Old Texican)| 1.8.10 @ 5:29PM
Hey,
here's a fresh idea: You guys at Am spec help us be informed on great candidates who need to be elected, and we just check 'em out and send donations direct.
Team America looks for great candidates daily....and helps individually. www.myteamusa.org
Mark J. Goluskin | 1.8.10 @ 6:50PM
No, do NOT agree. Mr. Duncan was a link to the Bush era. New blood was needed. I am not all that down on Michael Steele as some here are. I would have liked Ken Blackwell too. But Mr. Steele is who is there. He is not perfect, but he puts himself out there. Does he say stupid things? YES! But we all do at one time or another. And do not blame Steele for the Scozzafava fiasco. That would be Pete Sessions.
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DrTomVoter| 1.9.10 @ 10:35AM
Ken, that is exactly what is happening. Thanks to the internet, the entire paradigm of how campaign donations flow is changing. Why send money to Washington, be it taxes or donations, when the average person thinks they can spend it more wisely and efficiently? Hello Pay Pal, goodbye RNC.
Spicy Joker| 1.9.10 @ 1:21PM
Michael Steele is a wishy-washy RINO who called Rush Limbaugh an "entertainer."
Mike Duncan is an old fart who doesn't know how to run a modern political party.
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