The Mood In Colorado Springs
The Broadmoor resort spans 3,300 lush acres at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.
It was a beautiful setting for a mood-dampening dollop of pessimism.
RNC chairman Ken Mehlman, generally one of the party's premiere strategic optimists, warned GOP state chairs that the party would lose seats at every level of government.
Not "if" they didn't do X,Y, or GOTV. But "would lose," period. The task for state chairs: use lessons learned from '04 to flush out the Republican base as much as possible.
The corollary: the more Republicans confront Pres. Bush, the more they localize national sentiment, which in turn could provoke a higher turnout among independents, which in turn could cost the party even more House, Senate and GOV seats.
What Mehlman and WH pol dir Sara Taylor didn't say -- but what all state chairs know -- is that the politics of nastiness generally turns off persuadable voters. So expect the marginal races this year to be quite nasty.
The upshot: the more the national landscape is framed as 435 local elections, the better it looks for Republicans. The GOP will stay on track by focusing on good defense by leveraging their state-by-state fundamentals, which Mehlman, Taylor and many state chairs asserted were strong.
On Saturday morning, ex-WH CoS Andrew Card urged the chairs to support Bush. He told them he decided to leave the WH because the president "needed fundamental change;" you don't get much more fundamental than the CoS. To validate that change, the GOP must maintain their majorities at a national level, he said.
The meeting was sparsely attended by both party officials and national committeemen and women. The unofficial highlight, according to several attendees, was new McCain adviser Terry Nelson's first official sighting at an organized GOP gathering. McCain's upper echelon, including John Weaver, Mike Dennehy and Chuck Yobb, held informal and private meetings with various state chairs.
Katie Packer, who's helping Gov. Mitt Romney prepare a presidential bid, made the rounds.
Dick Wadhams, the campaign mgr for Sen. George Allen, was seen at the Card breakfast on Saturday.
The AR national committee delegation and aide Kirsten Fedewa held meetings on behalf of Gov. Mike Huckabee (R). [MARC AMBINDER]
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