RNC Chairman Steele says he is planning 'hip-hop' outreach to target urban minorities and the young

[TeamJordan23]

Thursday, February 19, 2009
Steele: GOP needs 'hip-hop' makeover
Ralph Z. Hallow

Newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele plans an “off the hook” public relations offensive to attract younger voters, especially blacks and Hispanics, by applying the party's principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.”

The RNC's first black chairman will “surprise everyone” when updating the party's image using the Internet and advertisements on radio, on television and in print, he told The Washington Times.

Having been elected to the job that the Bush White House and its political guru, Karl Rove, once denied him, Mr. Steele is running the show his way. To those who claimed he can't make the trains run on time, he has this message: “Stuff it.”

He stiff-armed an attempt to get him to elaborate on his public relations effort, saying he would be an idiot to give his opponents too much information, but indicated the Republican Party needs to break out of being considered a regional party.

”There was underlying concerns we had become too regionalized and the party needed to reach beyond our comfort” zones, he said, citing defeats in such states as Virginia and North Carolina. “We need messengers to really capture that region - young, Hispanic, black, a cross section ... We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings.”

But, he elaborated with a laugh, “we need to uptick our image with everyone, including one-armed midgets.”

“Where we have fallen down in delivering a message is in having something to say, particularly to young people and moms of all shapes - soccer moms, hockey moms,” he said, though he insisted that party messages won't be different strokes for different folks. “We don't offer one image for 18-year-olds and another for soccer moms but one that shows who we are for the 21st century.”

http://thepage.time.com/2009/02/19/steele-planning-hip-hop-outreach/

[bullwinkle428]

1. "The Daily Show" writers probably feel like they just woke up

on Christmas morning!

[SunsetDreams]

5. for sure n/t

[Aloha Spirit]

Nothing says comedy like people trying to be cool!

Thank you Steele, for thinking the Republican party suffers from a mere branding problem.
It's just a flesh wound!

[Critters2]

28. Like Republicans trying to be cool!

:rofl:

[SharonAnn]

27. But I think it's a great idea! They should really focus on that. A lot!

[rurallib]

2. That cartoon from yesterday's NY Post would make a nice image

for Steele to break the ice with the hip-hop crowd.

[SunsetDreams]

3. oh yeah Steele, it is sooooo funny to refer to "one-armed midgets" NOT

[NC_Nurse]

4. That should be endlessly amusing. Good luck with that, Michael.

:evilgrin:

[Demi_Babe]

6. they just don't get it

[emulatorloo]

7. This story is from the Washington Times, not Time magazine. Orig Link here

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/19/steele-gop-needs-hip-hop-makeover/

Time magazine is just pointing to that link.

Just wanting to clarify!

Thanks for posting this.

[robertpaulsen]

32. Are you sure they didn't steal that article from The Onion?

;)

[uponit7771]

8. WITH WHO!? Can anyone see a big name hip hop, R&B, Latin or pop star wanting to "pal" around with...

...Steeles amateurish ass?

[Sannum]

9. I suddenly have an image of Romney wearing blackface.

Ya know, to appeal to the kids.

*shudder*

[Brewman_Jax]

10. Really?

Steele is right about one thing, the GOP have targeted urban minorities for years. :eyes:

Oh, he meant outreach. :o I think not. The same people that have been scapegoated for years aren't going to forget that anytime soon, neither is the rest of the GOP. Quit while you're behind, Steele. :thumbsdown:

[LaydeeBug]

11. I can't wait.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[LaydeeBug]

12. I can't wait.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[traxster]

13. What? Does he think we "urban" folks need a translator? Maybe put it on a rap album?

He is so out of touch, it starting to be funny. Can't wait to see him lead the GOP. I'm loving it.

[firedupdem]

14. Right! He is such an idiot!

I can't stand him.

:puke:

[Vinca]

15. This will get the far right base all excited!

:sarcasm: :rofl:

[Barack_America]

16. I'm starting to love the Republican party...

...for the sheer entertainment value they provide.

"off the hook"??!?!?

:rofl:

[AlCzervik]

17. They all gonna get grillz and sit crooked on their crome?

[Still Sensible]

18. Well this initiative will make some freeper heads explode

and how much success does he think he can have such an effort. I suspect that the more overt the effort is the more it will be ridiculed in the very target market Steele is trying to reach.

[wowimthere]

19. Pandering to pursue a base that already recognizes Republicans for what they are... out of touch nt

[rvablue]

20. Frankly, I think we should all applaud his efforts....

because it's making the wingnuttery faction of the Republican Party (isn't that all they have left at this point besides the plutocrats)completely freak out and lose their minds.

The more Steele advocates and spends money on these efforts, the more the party will fracture and divide!

Go for it Chairman Steele. I support your efforts as the majority of your brethren in the Repub. party aren't going to for it.....Cheers!!!!

Is he going to get his ex-brother-in-law, Mike Tyson to lead the way?!?!?!?

[DevonRex]

24. This is the funniest stuff I've heard in years. Hip-hop republicans and their KKK brethren

desperately trying to figure out how to get along.

Not to mention Steele basically profiling all youth and black youth as hip-hop people. Do you think he knows that lots of young people and *gasp* even young black people are classical musicians, ballet dancers, jazz fans, blues enthusiasts, and opera goers?

I'm just DYING to see the first republican rap artist or hip hop artist doing promos for Steele's idea. They'd be laughed right OUT of town. My boys (white, ages 23 and 24) would be the FIRST ones lined up to throw rotten tomatoes at them. They love rap, hip hop, the blues, bluegrass, rock, grunge, everything. They'll take a pass on opera and jazz, like I do. Hell, they even listen to country when it's the Dixie Chicks or some other artist with a brain and a heart.

Steele probably thinks that no white people like rap and hip hop, too. Or that it's only the 20-somethings that like it. I swear to goddess, this is funny on so many levels that it'll be fodder for Jon Stewart and Colbert for weeks.

[rvablue]

25. And the icing on the cupcake....I donned by hazmat suit and waded over into Freeperworld

and they don't have a single solitary thing to say about this "plan."

Wonder why? :crazy: :evilgrin:

[DevonRex]

26. *snort* Guess they'll all have to learn how to rap, huh? Can't you see it?

Button-down preppie types stuttering their way through a GOP rap song. Total hick trash dancing to hip hop while waving their little Confederate flags?????

OMG. The pictures that are flashing through my brain are simply stunning.

[Grown2Hate]

21. Wow, the GOP is BRILLIANT!

Remember how they ran Sarah Palin so that all the female Hillary supporters would jump on board and vote for her? Remember how well that worked? I wish them the same amount of luck in this, their next GENIUS endeavor! (I wish it wasn't necessary to use this, but nonetheless... :sarcasm: )

[derby378]

22. Steele's position on guns may have cost him the NRA's backing, anyway

Wayne LaPierre doesn't strike me as much of a Public Enemy fan. :rofl:

[CreekDog]

23. he also told Democrats to "Stow it" and "Kiss his grits"

:eyes:

[rvablue]

31. "Kiss my grits", huh? I guess he was invoking the famous words of this hip hop icon:

MC FLO!

[politicasista]

29. LOL! Good luck with that!

The hip-hop generation is behind President Obama.

[Bicoastal]

30. See, the GOP's problem is not liberal blacks but conservative whites.

I've trolled FreeRepublic--they can't STAND anything hip-hop-related. They think every rapper is a gangbanger or a murderer, every urban area is populated solely by hoodlums with guns (unlike rednecks with guns, which is perfectly legit), and every black celebrity got to where they are solely by affirmative action. I could go on, but I ain't gonna...

Post-Inauguration Fox News got Michelle Malkin to talk about how "outraged" she was at Jay-Z, rappers, Obama, and all black people in general for not embracing this "post-racial era" we now apparently live in. Why? Because Jay-Z said: "Thank God, my President is a mothafucking black man!" at a inauguration party.

Steele has no clue what he's up against.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

33. Mm hmm... That's gonna work out real well

:wtf: :spray: :eyes:

[Number23]

34. Lord have mercy...

"Newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele plans an “off the hook” public relations offensive"

I don't know whether to :rofl: or :puke: Guess I'll just do both.

:rofl: :puke: :rofl:

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

35. Umm Michael Steele...

I am black and I am not into hip hop. Just talk to me like a human being without trying to "be down" and pegging me into a corner.

I am so looking forward to the Democrat sweep in 2010 and 2012.

[Minimus]

36. “we need to uptick our image with everyone, including one-armed midgets.”

:wtf:

[ColbertWatcher]

37. Exactly how out of touch is the GOP?

http://www.wikiality.com/Hip_Hop_Makeover