BET Wire: A New GOP or the Same Old Party?
The Republican Party's evolution continues.
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In Case You Missed It - The Republican Party celebrates one year of minority voter outreach; Rep. Charles Rangel says Tea Party people are mean and racist; Sen. Rand Paul says the GOP is like a bad pizza crust; Fortune magazine says President Obama is not one of the world's 50 greatest leaders – and more – Joyce Jones (@BETpolitichick). (Photo: BET)
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Didn't Make the Cut - The nation's first African-American president didn't make the cut on Fortune’s first list of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. “President Obama wasn’t excluded from Fortune’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders list,” Fortune said in a statement. “He simply didn’t make this year’s list of 50 outstanding individuals who have demonstrated rare leadership, leadership in multiple areas or who have demonstrated a long history of leading.” But former President Bill Clinton did, coming in at number five on the list. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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Bad Crust - "Remember when Domino’s finally admitted they had bad crust? Think Republican Party. Admit it; bad crust. We need a different kind of party," Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, also a potential 2016 presidential candidate, told students at the University of California at Berkeley on March 19. The GOP, he added, "needs to either evolve, adapt or die." (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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Not Drinking the Tea - In an interview with NY1, veteran New York Rep. Charles Rangel spoke of the difficulty of trying to work with the GOP's far right wing. “They are mean, racist people,” the 83-year-old lawmaker said. “Now why do I say that? Because in those red states, they’re the same slave-holding states. They had the Confederate flag. They became Dixiecrats; they had the Confederate flag. They’re now the Tea Party." (Photo: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/Landov)
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Create Your American Dream - The Republican National Committee has launched a "Create Your American Dream" campaign, featuring people of different demographics not frequently associated with the party. The ads will run in battleground states and stream on Hulu, Google and Facebook. The RNC also has bought spots on Black and Latino television networks and a web site that appeals to Asian-Americans. (Photo: GOP via YouTube)
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RNC Minority Voter Outreach Turns 1 - In year one of its effort to expand the base, the RNC has formed advisory boards to counsel party leaders about how to reach certain demographics, conducted listening tours, hired staffers around the nation to train precinct captains to engage locals and help push voter turnout and spent $12 million in advertising. "Now it's not just talk but, for the first time in our history at the RNC that we know of, spending big-time dollars on community leaders talking about what it is that we believe in and getting to know people in those different communities," says RNC chairman Reince Priebus. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
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Same Old Party - “Three hundred sixty-five days later, all the Republican Party is is another year older,” countered Democratic National Committee chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The Florida lawmaker cited GOP stands on several issues, from immigration to voting rights, to support that little has changed since the RNC began its outreach effort. (Photo: Paul Morigi/Getty Images for FORTUNE)
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He Could Be a Contender - Obama says Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick should not give up on any presidential dreams even if he rules out a 2016 bid. "Deval's done a great job and I think signals that he could be very successful at the federal level as well," he told New England Cable News. "Deval would make a great president or vice president, but I think based on me talking to him, it sounds like he'd like to take a little bit of a break." (Photo: REUTERS/Jason Reed)