Little Progress on Changing GOP Image

The Republican Party’s image “has changed little in the year since GOP Chairman Reince Priebus published his prescription for broadening the party’s appeal despite its investment in outreach to the racial minorities, women and gay voters who backed Democrats decisively in 2012,” the AP reports.

Notes former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer: “The issue that remains an open book for the Republicans is: What is the character of the party? Are we a more inclusive and welcoming party yet?”

“As the Republican National Committee opens its winter meetings here Wednesday, the party is counting on the political geography and expected lower turnout of the 2014 midterm elections to give them control of the Senate. If that happens, Fleischer said, it would be a ‘false narcotic’ for the larger problems facing a party that has lost the national popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections. Those will take years to fix.”