GOP 5.0

The GOP’s fall from the triumphant elections of 2004 to the consecutive defeats in 2006 and 2008 didn’t have to happen, and doesn’t have to be prolonged.But change in crucial aspects of the party’s message and messaging mustoccur quickly if the potential pick-ups of 2010 are to be achieved, and the White House reclaimed in 2012. As soon as the dust settled in 2008, Hugh Hewitt began an intensive series of interviews with key GOP leaders and political analysts and tacticians across the ideological spectrum. The blueprint for Republican renewal presented here reflects the best of that thinking. As the GOP’s ranks in D.C. are thinned by retirements of longserving senators such as Ohio’s George Voinovich and Missouri’s Kit Bond, and as the leadership of Senators McConnell and Kyl and House Members Boehner and Cantor begins to cope with large Democratic majorities and the agenda of President Obama, theRepublican grassroots need to re-engage and new energy and ideas must fl ow to restore balance to D.C. The repair of the Republican brand must be begun and sustained or the party’s stay in the wilderness will be prolonged far beyond 2010. 3