6 Ways the GOP Can Get Back on Its Feet

Six months before an election in which some estimate Republicans could lose 20 seats in the House and five in the Senate, insiders tell Politico how the GOP can pick itself up:

• Write some policy. “It’s critical that our candidates have a very clear set of principles,” says Mitt Romney. Think tax-cutting and spending-slashing.

• Dispense with sexcapades. As long as they’re not governing, top Republicans might as well “be very proactive in addressing anything with a potential whiff of scandal.”
• Re-ignite the donor base. There must be a way to re-open those wallets.
• Run from 43. Internal memos suggest “disassociating ourselves from President Bush”—and loyalty be damned, his numbers are lower than Nixon’s.
• Get a new platform: Jeb Bush suggests family values. Maybe a little diversity would help.
• Stoke old fears. There’s no safer play than making Democrats look like wimps. Talk up terrorists.

(More Republican Party stories.)