What do all these brands – Plymouth, Eagle, Oldsmobile, Saturn and Mercury – have in common? They all went through major rebranding programs. What else do they have in common? They all no longer exist.I worked for one of Chrysler’s agencies in the 1990s when they tried to re-brand Plymouth and Eagle. The psychographics for the Eagle Vision were unbelievable. The husband was an Ivy League grad and a corporate vice president. The wife got her degree from Northwestern and was president of the Junior League. The children were geniuses and the daughter was an 8-year old local concert pianist.If you remember the Eagle Vision, it was a more upscale Dodge Intrepid. Just as Chrysler was targeting Lexus, Infiniti and BMW owners who wouldn’t be caught dead in an Eagle Vision, the GOP establishment wants to target people who will never vote Republican.bw222 on March 18, 2013 at 11:10 PM

Reminds me of an engineer friend telling me that the product manager behind the pontiac aztec was a diversity hire from the bra industry and a nature lover.

AH_C on March 19, 2013 at 1:33 AM

Thread-Winner BRILLIANT!!

Problems with the late convention date include:
1 – Federal election law that prohibits leading candidates from spending money until they are endorsed at a convention; regardless where you come down on Mitt Romney, the loss of being able to counter the lies spread about him hurt, big time.
2 – In MN we had our Dem party trash our R caucus-endorsed candidate in 2010. B/c of a late primary challenge to the R candidate (and the challenger never would have won), money and time and energy were wasted all summer, again.

Caucus problems
1 – MN actually replaced the primary system w/ the caucus system in the 1950′s. So, any state, could go either way.
2 – Caucuses are an entry point for new people.
3 – Caucuses can be stacked (Obama in TX) so assuming that only primaries can be stacked is ignoring the other potential problems.

I’m not sure if this RNC suggestion is a top-down move or something to let us start getting our act together sooner. To believe that caucuses will go, IMO, is foolish. But, states can change their procedures. MN has.

That’s a test, essentially, of name recognition and fundraising, as it limits the candidates’ opportunities for direct campaigning and turns things into an ad war to win low-information voters.

Yet people still do not understand the importance of doing their own homework and thus buy into the propaganda the rich people publish.

America ALWAYS gets the government it deserves.

What do all these brands – Plymouth, Eagle, Oldsmobile, Saturn and Mercury – have in common? They all went through major rebranding programs. What else do they have in common? They all no longer exist.I worked for one of Chrysler’s agencies in the 1990s when they tried to re-brand Plymouth and Eagle. The psychographics for the Eagle Vision were unbelievable. The husband was an Ivy League grad and a corporate vice president. The wife got her degree from Northwestern and was president of the Junior League. The children were geniuses and the daughter was an 8-year old local concert pianist.If you remember the Eagle Vision, it was a more upscale Dodge Intrepid. Just as Chrysler was targeting Lexus, Infiniti and BMW owners who wouldn’t be caught dead in an Eagle Vision, the GOP establishment wants to target people who will never vote Republican.bw222 on March 18, 2013 at 11:10 PM

Reminds me of an engineer friend telling me that the product manager behind the pontiac aztec was a diversity hire from the bra industry and a nature lover.

What does the current GOP and an appendix have in common?

VorDaj on March 18, 2013 at 9:56 PM

Small but painful (on the left side) and needs surgical removal immediately.

Is this enough to make a third party viable? I think so.

nobar on March 18, 2013 at 6:08 PM

I see no hope for a third party that is libertarian either primarily or alone. A new conservative party, complete with fiscal conservatives, libertarians and social conservatives is the only makeup that could displace the elites.

The nations’ corruption of basic moral values and waining support for traditional family values is why we’re in trouble in all areas.

I worked for one of Chrysler’s agencies in the 1990s when they tried to re-brand Plymouth and Eagle. The psychographics for the Eagle Vision were unbelievable. The husband was an Ivy League grad and a corporate vice president. The wife got her degree from Northwestern and was president of the Junior League. The children were geniuses and the daughter was an 8-year old local concert pianist.

If you remember the Eagle Vision, it was a more upscale Dodge Intrepid. Just as Chrysler was targeting Lexus, Infiniti and BMW owners who wouldn’t be caught dead in an Eagle Vision, the GOP establishment wants to target people who will never vote Republican.

There has to be a good way to get face time for everyone. Was going to say someone smart should be able to figure it out, but this is the GOP so never mind.

kim roy on March 18, 2013 at 6:49 PM

The subject of having the Republican Debates with the left wing media came up before. I can’t recall, but someone said this decision was made by the RNC. Perhaps someone might remember if that’s correct or not.

Keep in mind that what the RNC just put out is an autopsy report. Dr Frankenstein’s prescription for reviving the monster is to be more like the Democrats – to rebrand the GOP as the democratic mini-me party on illegal immigration, entitlements etc.

An autopsy indicates there has been a death. You can only revive something that has some life in it. To rebrand the R Party to a Dem lite or otherwise shouldn’t take too much, since in all practical sense it’s already there.

The only way the R Party can continue, is to remove the rotten parts, which are more than just the elected members of Congress.

Regardless, one good thing is to reform the flawed GOP debate system that has spawned a slew of dubious “book tour” candidates. Halving (halfing?) the debates is a start. May three-quartering, and forget the egalitarian “8 candidate debates.” Feel free to get over the egalitarian pc illness and go ahead and use some criteria to limit the number of candidates in the debates. Fundraising and other critical campaign organization skills, the skills needed to win the general, are downplayed in the system that puts the debates front and center. And if they are hawking a book, don’t let them any where near the debate stage.

Perhaps it is time for the State parties to get rid of the RNC.

ajacksonian on March 18, 2013 at 8:40 PM

Now that is cause for pause:-) I’m not sure if that would work, or how to go about it, but love the sound of it!!

RNC Sham 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B39W91O-rUg&feature=youtu.be

FloatingRock on March 18, 2013 at 6:28 PM

I recall all of that. HA had threads up and several of us were commenting and bringing over many Michelle Malkin’s info. A sham, indeed. And it appears to be getting worse.