Counting Guns, But Proving Their Mettle?

WASHINGTON -- The six men vying to lead the Republican Party out of the era of a botched war tried today to outgun each other, quite literally, during a 90-minute debate sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform.

When moderator Grover Norquist asked how many firearms the candidates own, the current RNC chairman, Mike Duncan, who despite presiding over his party’s 2008 electoral trouncing is reapplying for his job, noted proudly that he claims four handguns and two rifles.

Rival Katon Dawson, chairman of the South Carolina GOP, said that he has “too many to count.”

Former OH Secretary of State Ken Blackwell was willing to count. Seven, he said, adding: “And I’m good.”

MI GOP chairman Saul Anuzis said he has two guns, but in case the RNC’s 168 committee members, who will vote this month for the next party chairman, wanted to verify his stash, Anuzis said, perhaps only half jokingly, that he is not allowed to carry them in Washington.

Chip Saltsman, who managed Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign, offered up a list so long it was hard to track the pistol persuasion.

And GOPAC head Michael Steele, a one-term lieutenant governor of blue state MD, was the only man on the panel to say that he hasn’t a single firearm.

What’s wrong with all this gun talk? It is the Grand Old Party these guys are seeking to lead, and the Second Amendment is, no surprise, a cherished Republican value. But it wasn’t just the testosterone-charged arms race that smacked of stale GOP politics during the debate held at the National Press Club in front of a packed house. At a time when change seems to be the order of the day for voters, the men seeking the party’s top job were trading in the rhetoric of old.

Abortion rights? The GOP six said they’re opposed. School choice? They’re for it. Praise of Ronald Reagan was plentiful, and to the person, each panelist cited him as their favorite Republican president.

“Ok, everybody got that right,” Norquist said.

The RNC’s 168 members have a tough choice to make this month in determining who of the six men seeking to lead the party is most deserving, and it’s clear in talking to activists that it’s anyone’s guess still who will emerge the victor. Why? Because not one of the candidates appears to have all of the critical attributes – true tech savvy, proven grassroots experience, inspirational messaging – needed to lift the party out of the doldrums.

They missed opportunities today to show that they learned tangible lessons from Barack Obama’s resounding victory over John McCain. With the Republicans facing a problematic technology deficit, a new and growing group of young GOP leaders is working to push that problem to the fore through a grassroots coalition called ‘Rebuild the Party.’ Several questions today focused on that challenge. But the answers didn’t necessarily provide a thoughtful game plan.

Duncan said he doesn’t Twitter but added curiously that the party’s site allows people to Twitter for him. Blackwell and Anuzis jousted over who has more Facebook members. When Anuzis said he has 3,000 friends, Blackwell held up four fingers -- like rabbit ears -- over the Michigan chairman’s head, reminding audience members that he has “four thousand.” As in, Blackwell has 1,000 more friends than Anuzis.

Hey, guys, Obama has 3.6 million Facebook friends.

The men were also asked what they would do to bring young people into the fold. They responded with talk about the 18-to-24 set being the “heart and soul of the party” (Saltsman). And one remarked that he was the youngest mayor of Cincinnati in history (Blackwell).

Sure, each candidate has winning attributes.

Blackwell won in a swing state that Obama flipped this cycle, and he seems to be attracting support from the critical conservative wing of the party. Steele, with his FOX News contract, is telegenic and a familiar face in many living rooms. Dawson and Saltsman are southerners who have roots – and connections – in a region that is trending Democratic. Anuzis, raised in Detroit, is a swing state native, too, and his personal biography – family members worked in an auto factory – seems to intersect with the economic problems facing the industry and the nation. And Duncan has experience on his side and has shown a willingness to brave the long slog ahead.

But for the GOP to transition, as Anuzis put it, to being the Grand Opportunity Party, doesn’t it need a leader willing to not just sound the required bites but to find a way to counter the machine Obama has built? To find a message – and a program – that woos voters who defected this cycle, Hispanics, young people and working class whites, back into the fold? To urgently embark on building the party's technological outreach and voter database?

“It doesn’t seem like it’s the easiest thing in the world right now to be a Republican,” Steele said today, adding, “we’re here to prove that it is.”

But it doesn’t seem easy to be a Republican at the moment or for that matter, if you’re one of 168 committee members, to pick a Republican Party leader.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)