In response to:
The republican problem can be boiled down to two simple points: lack of coordination / poor communication.
1) They (we) should be marching in lock-step. A key set of talking points should be circulated amonst the party members weekly. Anyone who deviates (Akin / Mourdock) should be quickly alienated as a loon. The republican primaries are the best example of lack of coordination. The in-fighing caused too much delay, cost critical dollars which could have been used in the presidential race, and in the end caused apathy among conservative voters.
2) The conservative message is a great one, but must be communicated by those who can articulate it (back to point 1 - the primary should have been quickly boiled down to 2 candidates.
Having just lost an election, many Republicans are anxious to remake our party in the image of Democrats. The theory seems to be that whatever we're doing isn't working, so we better change everything.
But in fact, whatever Republicans did in 2012 -- other than an overly long primary fight -- worked amazingly well, given the circumstances.
In a detailed analysis of the 2012 election, William A. Galston, a fellow with the liberal Brookings Institution, makes a number of fascinating observations that Republicans would do well to consider before embracing amnesty, abortion, gay marriage and Beyonce.
In my...
Point 2 is true. Unfortunately the party leaders are anything but conservatives (back to point 1).
Republicans have communicated their points exrtremely well.
They hate blacks, browns, and any foreigner who is not a Jew.
They also hate gays, the poor and women in general.
poor communication is not the problem here!
Remember their attacks on Romney that his policies directly led to the death of a woman?