"We have a massive opportunity to grow the pie of conservatism because of the quickness of Twitter and because everyone is jumping on board."

"Grow" the pie?

They think pies grow on trees?

'Technology chops' just isn't relative for the GOP-as-we-know-it.

They excel at antique media like talk radio, pulpits and Twitter, which are all about selfishly haranguing your sheep like 'followers'.

Interactive is what they're against.

And yet we still have more oblivious Republicans confused about their so-called core principles.

FWIW, I still don't see the big deal about Twitter.

They need to bring back Glenn Murphy.

Iowa Republicans are trying the same thing: same old message spread using spanking-new technology.

http://tinyurl.com/nentu5

http://tinyurl.com/lnac6k

Twitter away lug nuts! The other important aspect of twittering is there has to be someone on the other end to receive (or want to receive) the noise. Yep. Twittering to the "Choir" will be just a perfect strategy to rebuild a sinking party that is unwilling to state torture is illegal, that Hispanic judges aren't racists, that health care is not a privilege, and not all Muslims are terrorists, for starters.

Twitter away you fools as your party, like Rome, is burning...

Twitter is a good media route for the GOP: it's a quick, fast, bumper-sticker hot media. It's not designed for analysis. It's good for instant outrage, getting the 2-minute hate on.

However, there are two big problems. First, by being massive failures, they've lost popularity except with the true believers. You can't gain new followers with media like twitter. Second, to repeat the point of many others, they have a real problem with aging populace. Those folks who were 18 when Reagan came into office are 47 now. Twitter is not part of their lives, and it won't be.

Twitter is attractive to the GOP because it whispers the possibility that they'll just be popular and hip again if they use this new technology. Of course, they're unpopular because they got us into an endless, losing war; they defend and praise torture; they hate gays for no particularly good reason; they reflexively consider non-whites as unqualified; and they bear a considerable part of the blame for the devastating recession we're in. Little of this makes any sense to the younger generation. The GOP will have to change to be popular again, and they don't do change.

I hate to own up to this, but I remember email on ARPAnet. Then came CompusServe mail, then IRC chat, news groups, etc. It all comes - and it all goes, too.

Whither twitter? As soon as someone figures out a way to sell you a can of peas on twitter, it'll die.

And it won't be the first time. In their 'cloudy crystal ball' some years ago, the New Yorker published a note to the effect that tennis would never become a big time sport, like baseball, football, etc. because there was no way to make money playing tennis.

Yes, they will make the pie higher. http://tinyurl.com/2nf6y

Even within their White Guy ranks there is very little diversity. As far as I can tell the current core of party activists is comprised of really mean, ethically challenged liars who would say anything to win an election, who accuse everyone who is not them of being unpatriotic, not supporting the troops, and yet none has enlisted in or served in the military, who believe that real torture is equivalant to primetime teevee, and who somehow identify meanspirited bitching from former beauty queens as leadership qualities.

The CR's diversity problem is more profound than they will ever be able recognize from inside their house of mirrors.

Only appropriate that Republithugs base their strategy on Twitter - after all, the root word is TWIT.

It's not the tool, it's what you do with it.

That's true. But that said, Carpetbagger had a much more attractive and user-friendly interface than this blog. Why couldn't they just stick a Washington Monthly logo on the old blog and let you keep going there? It was so much better.

And I don't see the big deal with twitter either.

Isn't this a publish/subscribe paradigm where all the messages are like--telegraphic in rhetorical syntax and complexity? Maybe that is the big appeal to Republicans, who always try to reduce complexity to a bumper sticker or a slogan. Tweet out the 3 word solutions to every complicated wicked problem. Nuance, no--Republicans don't do nuance. Simply solutions for simple minded people.

It's not the tool, it's what you do with it.

All innuendo aside, this is exactly right and a point that can't be said enough, though Republicans would have been right in the 1950s if they'd said "we've really got to get into this whole TV thing."

For you inevitable commenters who will dismiss or disparage Twitter as a kneejerk response, Steven Johnson's Time cover story this week will shut your mouth.

At some point, the conservative push for dumbing down political discourse will reach its final destination. A single byte. some symbol that represents all they stand for. ALL WILL CONSUME!

Stories like this already show the absurdity of years of bashing intellectualism and over-simplifying political message into binary memes: "Up or down vote", "With us or against us", the abortion debate, climate change, etc.

It began as a purposeful attempt to simplify complex issues for mass consumption and the end result is a pool of boorish dimwits that we can all laugh at.

The GOP will mount a comeback at some point, but it still amazes me day in and day out how they still cannot identify the problem with their party.

Just for the hell of it, I signed up to be on their email list. They must not look very closely at the names or edresses, as I signed up as votedemocratic@gmail.com!

Also, the old Carpetbagger site was much better than this one in workability and Kevin Drum's new space is almost completely unreadable and postable.

College Republicans have a seven-person national leadership team, consisting of seven white guys.

In all fairness, all seven do belong to different country clubs.

-Z

Like KTinOhio says I don't see the big deal .
I see Twitter = Pet Rock of communications
and I take you back ...Breaker Breaker , Thats' a big 10 -4... communications fad. 140 characters is going to get old quick.

I'll never buy into it, probably because Republican embrace it (I guess badly so). The words twitter and twittering imply nuisance.

Like KTinOhio says I don't see the big deal .
I see Twitter = Pet Rock of communications
and I take you back ...Breaker Breaker , Thats' a big 10 -4... communications fad. 140 characters is going to get old quick.

BOSTON (Reuters) Fri Jun 5, 2009 - A tiny fraction of those who use the fast-growing social network phenomenon Twitter generate nearly all the content, a Harvard study shows.

That makes it hard for companies to use the micro-blogging site as an accurate gauge of public opinion, the Harvard Business School study showed.

The Harvard study examined public entries of a randomly selected group of 300,000 Twitter users. The researchers studied in May the content created in the lifetime of the users' Twitter accounts.

It found that 10 percent of Twitter users generated more than 90 percent of the content, said Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, who led the research. More than half of all Twitter users post messages on the site less than once every 74 days.

By definition, once John McCain and Newt Gingrich begin to use any technology, it is n long considered to be cutting edge. In fact, it's run is almost done.

Looks like an application of those ideas ...
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Republicans appear to have retaken control of New York's Senate after two dissident Democrats jumped the aisle in a parliamentary coup.

The bad news is, the ideas need some work. -- Steve Benen

And you consider it "bad news"? Why on earth?

College Republicans have a seven-person national leadership team, consisting of seven white guys. -- Steve Benen

Could someone reared in US remind me the names? Grumpy and Sleepy and Dopey... and then what? Humpty Dumpty?

Who cares? The Republican Party is irrelevant to the political processes of the U.S. Isn't it time for the media to start reporting more on the Democratic primaries since they are the real, relevant elections that decides who the leaders of the U.S are? The Democratic primary in Virginia is the real election for governor in Virginia and the media is barely covering it.

GOP 2009: Tweets from Twits !