Republican Governors Conference: Palin Answers Questions, Pawlenty Tells Hard Truths

At the Republican Governors Conference today, Sarah Palin answered four questions from the press (!) and Tim Pawlenty of the great state of Minnesota told his fellow conferees some hard truths about the GOP:

Mr. Pawlenty kicked off the conference with a somewhat gloomy appraisal of where things stand for the Republican Party.

“We cannot be a majority governing party when we essentially cannot compete in the Northeast, we are losing our ability to compete in Great Lakes States, we cannot compete on the West Coast, we are increasingly in danger of competing in the Mid-Atlantic States, and the Democrats are now winning some of the Western States,” he said. “That is not a formula for being a majority governing party in this nation.”

“And similarly we cannot compete, and prevail, as a majority governing party if we have a significant deficit, as we do, with women, where we have a large deficit with Hispanics, where we have a large deficit with African-American voters, where we have a large deficit with people of modest incomes and modest financial circumstances,” he said. “Those are not factors that make up a formula for success going forward.”

“There will be calls, and voices across the country for Republicans to return to traditional conservative approaches in almost all respects,” he said, adding that there would also be calls to modernize the party.

“The good news is both are true, and both can be harmonized in my view,” Mr. Pawlenty said. “We can be both conservative and we can be modern at the same time.”

I am not so sure about that last line, if being conservative is equated with the party's recent policy stances, particularly at a national level. However, Pawlenty's preceding analysis is pretty solid in addressing the problems the GOP faces in being competitive, and it's nice to see a Republican politician admit it in public.