Graham: Corrupted GOP Came Across As "Grumpy Old Men"

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Friday the GOP lost the White House because the party was tainted by corruption, overspending and "sometimes came across as a bunch of grumpy old men."

Graham, a close ally of John McCain who campaigned frequently for the GOP nominee, said the election left the party damaged.

"It's certainly not beyond repair," he said in a telephone interview Friday with The Associated Press. "I think this is a center-right nation. America did not wake up one day and become liberal, but we as a party had worn out our welcome."

Graham did not single out specific cases of corruption, but in the last year Idaho Sen. Larry Craig was arrested in an airport men's room sex sting and Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted last month in a federal corruption case. He also did not specify instances of overspending, but spokesman Kevin Bishop later said Graham opposes some earmarks.

The South Carolina senator said Republicans need to match the youthful appeal of Barack Obama's positive energy. Obama is 47; McCain is 72.

"All we have to do is go back to the basics of fiscal conservatism, with a smile and come up with new ways to communicate with the younger voter," said Graham, who captured 58 percent of the vote in winning re-election against a little-known opponent.

Exit polls show that 18- to 29-year-olds voted for Obama by a more than 2-1 margin, boosted by particularly strong support from young African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans.

"I don't believe they are all liberal," Graham said. "I think they were attracted to his positive message and we sometimes came across as a bunch of grumpy old men. We have got to knock that off."

The Republicans do have a positive message, but must find a way to get it across, Graham said.

"We live in a global economy. When young people seek jobs they're competing with China and India," he said. "If we don't have good tax policy, businesses will leave. Social Security is going bankrupt _ we've got to plan for that. We have to show young people that their future is better preserved by our policies."

The Election Day environment was toxic for Republicans, Graham added.

"We can't ignore the fact that Sen. Obama ran a great campaign, but we did shoot ourselves in the foot," he said.

Comments

[PT6]

Obama is the epitome of a "New IDEA and Problem-Solving Politics" in TWO WAYS!

"Old-Style Rove" politicians are trying to find a future for themselves in a dramatically changed world!

"Technology" is now counteracting "Rove Politics" including:

1. Easy access to old speeches on video compared to new speeches
2. Truth squads
3. Obama's Community Organizing via internet
4. Tough blogging by Democrats
5. Participation by millions of Democrats on sites like Huffington Post

All of these have never appeared before and never played such a large role in an election.

In short "old-style dirty ROVE" politics have lost to a "new" kind of inclusive and technology driven politics!
____________________________________________________________________________

This New Politics is not Right Centered or Left Centered or any other "Old Way" of defining politics!

It is driven by the needs of Americans to survive and prosper, and the desire for Intelligent Common Sense Problem-Solving.

Whether the ideas come from the Left, the Right, or the Center is not important!

The Important thing is that the ideas work!

Obama is the epitome of this "New IDEA and Problem-Solving Politics"!

[blakfist]

The repudiation of the Republican party was based highly in part to their simplistic and divisive approach to the politics and needs of this great country. How backward thinking is it to equate intellectualism with elitism. As if striving to gain as much education as possible is a negative. How backward thinking is it to make Community Activism or equate it to a second rate hobby like Gulianni,Palin and the rest did during their convention, when truley to the contrary it was the community activist skills that built that winning campaign, it was community activism that fought against Jim Crow and Police Brutality, that fed needy families in the 60's and continue to do so even today. So you see where the Republicans choose to discount that which GOD finds admirable, young people, people new to the political scene, minorities in general, college students are all taking those concepts and riding them towards solidifying their future

[QuietLightTraveler]

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY is a party of no ideas and selfishness. It's the party of we have ours - the hell with everyone else. It's the party which supports a strong military because it likes to step on the toes of others. It's the party that hoodwinks an anti-intellectual base for votes. It's the party that doesn't support the arts or sciences. It's the party that proposes nothing to help the poor and disadvantaged. It's the party that ravishes our environment because of its own ignorance and stupidity. It's the party that allowed corporate fraud and excesses to ruin our economy. It's the party that propagates myths about trickle down economics and the value of shrinking government as a smokescreen to cover its basic motive of greed. It's a party that promotes incompetent politicians for high office just to win votes. It's a party that fails to learn from its own mistakes. Its a party that tries to appeal to voters by claiming it will cut taxes because its devoid of any other ideas. It's a party on the wane.

[Okieborn]

WRONG JERK !
IT WAS NOT THE GRUMPY OLD MAN REASON !!
THE REASON THE DEMOCRATS WON WAS OUT OF A REVIVAL OF HONESTY AND CARING FOR ALL AMERICANS NOT JUST THE RICH !
LINSEY GO AWAY !!!!

[fedupinpa]

Look what conservatism has brought us as a nation. We no longer have the world's highest standard of living, poverty is on the rise, our average life span and infant mortality rate trail many other countries, and our health care ranks somewhere around 37th in the world.As time and the world moves on we must be progressive and move with it. Old ideas don't work and only leave us falling more behind. We need to once again led with new ideas. This is the 21st century not the 20th.

[ffejretsof]

The Republican party lost because American's got tired of 8 years of Republican rule. It is the height of hypocrisy for these guys to lay blame on for their loss on corruption and the fact that they come across as grumpy old men. Iraq, Katrina, denial of Scientific Reasoning and fomenting false questions about global warming, torture, Guantanamo, Terri Schiavo, wire tapping, hyper-partisan appointments at Justice, these are a few of the real reasons Americans rejected the Republicans. I hope they keep with this sorry dog and pony show. When you lose the youth vote, the African American vote, the Hispanic vote, you have lost the fastest growing populations in the United States. Until the Republicans can fashion a set of ideals that appeals to these people, they will remain in the wilderness.

[arebee]

The Republican party has become an organization that wants to legislate how we Americans "should" be living our lives. At one time, it considered itself the party of less government. Not so anymore. Furthermore, it has also become a party of greedy people who want to keep it all for themselves. I was told by a young Republican that "the poor are poor because they want to be poor." So many current Republicans are also "Chris tian" and a comment never to my knowledge came from the mouth of the person they claim to believe is their way to salvation. Even the language that Sarah Palin, a self-professed Chris tian, was hateful and predominantly lies. There are many reasons why many of us Americans have turned against the Republicans. More than I can list in the small space alloted to us on this site. They have to do more than smile and not appear grumpy.

[realpolitic]

Republicans believe that the poor are poor because they want to be so and that gays are gay because they choose to be. I do not remember at any time in my early years being asked whether I wanted to be wealthy or poor, or asked to choose a sexual identity. Republicans say they believe in choice. Then they give us false, simplististic choices.

[realpolitic]

Let's face it! Conservatives are the party of grumpy, aging, angry white men.

[hardlyhikin]

"We have to show young people that their future is better preserved by our policies."
Senator Lindsey Graham (R)

We've lost a million and a half jobs this year, we're fighting two wars, 47 million Americans can't afford health care, the national unemployment rate is at a 14 year high, the country is in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression (if not ever), the stock market is in the toilet, the Bush administration just gave $824 billion to the people at the top of the financial food chain, we have a $10 trillion national debt.

Tell me again how young people's futures are better served by Republican policies.

[mediamarv]

Well said, sir, well said.

[realpolitic]

Very well said! Conservatives keep repeating this mumbo-jumbo about their policies being better, yet ignore their own very recent record. They have short-term memory loss! Psychiatrists would call it "convenient memory syndrome!" They should take ownership of their failures and explain to the American people what exactly went wrong!. Being Republicans, they will have no self-assessment and use in the future the same divisive tactics that they have always relied on..

[jmpfjoy]

You insult voter's intelligence by stating your loss was because you "looked like a bunch of grumpy old men". Way to oversimplify what you simply can't face. I can assure you, being old and grumpy is the least of the GOP's worries right now. In fact, you need to get past the "how we look" argument and get into the " how we can never tell the truth" or "how we politicize for our own agenda instead of what's good for the American people".

[realpolitic]

Yes, and how they can deny science to ignore things like climate change and what to do about it! How they walk away from any and all treaties including that which banned production of nuclear weapons materials.

Republicans have become the party which stands for nothing and against everything.

[joeythetrollslayer]

Obama now is going to keep those new voters involved in the process. Fast forward to 2012. Do you think a young voter who went for Obama, is going to vote for Palin the compulsive binge shopper? especially if Obama does a reasonable job as Pres? Do the Repubs have a show as cool as the Daily show? What? Michael Savage??? Republicans are the boa constrictor of politics and new ideas. You can't change who you are. Rush Dumbaugh a.k.a. Doughboy is gonna be positive? appeal to young people? haha. O'Reilly, positive message? please

[linzy]

Better yet, why don't both parties quit telling us what we want to hear in order to get our votes and instead tell us who and what they are really all about. Well, I can dream, can't I?

[openhand]

If I wasn't against gun control and a pacifist, I would probably get a real kick out of shooting him in the other foot.

[sociocanuck]

His analysis is flawed all over, though the center-right thing might be correct in comparison to certain European nations.

The thing is, European governments and their people both push each other to progressive places. Whereas there's a disconnection in American politics that prevents progressive governments from reaching all the citizens and from progressive citizens from influencing the government -- especially because its officials insist on saying stuff like "it's a center-right nation" as if that gives them the right to ignore progressive voters.

[LouisvilleLiberal]

I don't think America is a center right or a center left nation, but a center nation. On both the left and right, there are the hard core conservatives and the hard core liberals. But, 60-80% of the population is somewhere in the center or finds themselves part liberal and part conservative.

I personally, consider myself a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. However, I do not think health care and social security are any less important than national security and am happy to pay taxes to benefit all of society.

Republicans are not the party of fiscal conservatives and haven't been for 30 years so voters under 50 years old don't buy that line anymore. Republicans have been all talk on fiscal issues for too long to take them seriously.

Republicans have become the party of social conservatives being used by the neo conservatives - not the party of the center right.

[letsbepeaceful]

I totally agree! I've always been puzzled by those who say the country is center-right. There's far right, and far left, and a lot in between. Individuals lean a little farther left on some issues, right on others.

It has also always seemed to me (and many of my friends) that those on the far right are in general more dogmatic, rigid, and single-minded than those on the left. Can it be that progressives and liberals by definition frequently see both sides of issues, and acknowledge that there are other opinions, and are therefore more willing to be flexible in their voting and other habits? More like, I-see-your-point-but-I'll-still-try-to-convince-you than there-is-no-other-way.

I'm a fellow SLFC (social-liberal/fiscal-conservative), also happy to pay taxes to support infrastructure, health care and education, the environment, and NOT for unnecessary wars, or tax exemptions for rich corporations. Am not happy either about the unavoidable expenses of salvaging the economy from fiscal deregulation.

[michaelsmolder]

WOW ...Very well said. (I may steal parts of that ) :-)