Washington (CNN) – Barack Obama survived a bitter primary fight with Hillary Clinton to become president and so will one of the Republican presidential contenders, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Sunday.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” Priebus used President Obama’s win in 2008 as evidence Republicans can be victorious in 2012 following a hard fought primary season.
“I think primaries work,” Priebus said. “After all is said and done and all the drama goes on, we are going to have a completely unified party.”
However, Priebus, currently in his first term, said he does not know when the primary fight will end, suggesting it could continue through March 6th, Super Tuesday, or the contest heavy month of April.
“It could be before then, it could be just shortly thereafter,” Priebus told CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley. “I do know we are ready to go and we’re ready to help save this country.”
But when presented with a recent CBS/New York Times poll in which 69% of Americans said Republican policies favor the rich, the RNC chief said it was a sign the GOP needs to do better.
“Obviously we’ve got to do a better job or, according to this poll, of portraying the fact that number one, we want you to have a job, we want every American to be making more money and we want to reduce taxes on every single American, no matter what income category you fit into,” Priebus said.
Also see:
Bachmann cries 'bias' after Saturday debate
Five things we learned from Saturday's GOP debate
Cain faces pushback over Anita Hill remark
Watch State of the Union with Candy Crowley Sundays at 9am ET. For the latest from State of the Union click here.
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Pat in IL
How can this man even try to compare the brains and moral and ethical standards of Hilary and Obama with the clowns who are most of the current Republican candidates??!!??!!
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Brains? Obama has been clueless in his attempts to buy the economy back to life. And ethical standards? Like giving $500 million to Solyndra when it was obvious they didn't have a workable business plan but what they did have was a significant Democratic donor invested heavily in the business. We got our first glimpse of his "ethical standards" when he went against his own words and signed ObamaCare into law after the Senate used Reconciliation to cram it through. I can't wait to see his ethical standards play out during his final desperate 13 months in office. Believe me it is going to get uglier.
Guess again, Rancid Prius! the rethugs cannot beat Obama. their ideas are as crazy as they are. i've never seen a sorrier bunch of candidates. and the rethugs in office now are falling over themselves to show their true colors busting unions and disenfranchising likely Democratic voters all over the country. Americans still believe in democracy and it's becoming plainer every day that the rethugs don't! now they're talking about waterboarding being ok and starting another war? only an idiot would vote rethug this year.
IMHO there is nothing that the repubs can ever do that will make me vote for a repub! These guys have always favored the rich, and that I believe will never ever change!
The Grand Old Tea Party has spent the last three YEARS telling us EXACTLY what they want to do. NO taxes on the rich, MORE taxes on the middle class. NO regulation on banks or businesses. NO rights for workers. And most importantly, NO voting if you aren't a Republican.
You can't build an electoral majority purely based on hating one man.
America to GOP: Vision is more than an endless repetition of the same talking points.
These guys will take us to war again, I hope it doesn't happen.
In what world does he lives??? The Republicans are so out of touch with the American people it is a shame. These canidates are from another world.
Get rid of the tea party and all their Koch bros nonsence and get a canidate that has a half a brain.Perry/Bachman/Cain ect are not the brightest of people but all the Koch bros can drunb up...Obama 2012 for sure.
Cain says the Democratic machine leaked the sex abuse stuff about him....NO NO NO.......they want him to run
Priebus and his Republican party actually believe that they can support the 1% with all of their votes and then come election time just tell the middle class that "we are working for you"!!!! After the election it will be back to supporting the rich. Can we send please send them a message in 2012 that they need to work for the rest of the country?
Can't the GOP find anybody that may have finished high school or is that whats needed to please the tea boys as they want more cuts to education as Perry kinda indicated.
The GOP is one disgraceful cartoon.
The contest I am waiting for is Bubba vs the Misses, three terms why not.
Every word out of these people's mouths is a nail in the republican coffin. Pure coffin nails.
"Obviously we’ve got to do a better job or, according to this poll, of portraying the fact that number one, we want you to have a job, we want every American to be making more money."
Tell me again how sending our manufacturing jobs overseas or flooding the American market with H-1B workers has helped each of us to have a job or helped us make more money.
These actions passed by Republicans have destroyed the middle class of our country and destroyed our economy. Tell the Republican Party you are sick of their lies by voting for someone else.
This man must think we are all a bunch of idiots!!! They want us to have a job allright – a job at minimum wage with no benefits or union representation. In fact, I bet they'd be wet with excitement if we could get two or three of those kinds of jobs.
Rather than focusing on impeding Mr. Obama in any fashion possible, the Repubs need to become part of the solution yesterday if not sooner. Matters not what they declare themselves ready to do; we have seen what they've done, and it's not pretty. Desperation to get a lock on power, not to govern.
This guy Priebus implying that tax cuts are needed for the 1% insults the intelligence of 99% of us. Try truth.
I believe Mr. Priebus needs a reality check. The overwhelming majority of POTUS wannabes are so extreme in their views that they’ll never be palatable enough to garner enough crossover votes to take the general election. As for his claim of having a united party next year, he’s living in a fantasy world. With the many different factions of the tea party in the mix, each of them pushing their own agendas, as well as their own unique brand of crazy, we’re assured that the party division from 2010 will carry through to November 2012. If Jon Huntsman somehow becomes the beneficiary of a miracle in the next few months and headlines the Republican ticket, he’ll have my vote in the general. As for the rest of them, NEVER.
Mr. Preibus seems to be forgetting that the Republicans also had a fairly tense primary in 2007-2008. McCain didn't walk into the nomination. President Obama has an advantage in that all of his energy and money is going towards the general election, and he doesn't have to pander to the extremes of the Democratic party to become the nominee.
What a rah-rah cheerleader! Sure the republicans are going to be a 'completely unified party' - if the rest of them kneel to Grover Norquist and accept His blessing. Money speaks a language the republicans all understand!
Anyone but the socialist in the White House now.
Hillary Clinton is probably the best, most qualified, most intelligent candidate in my lifetime to not win her party's nomination.
And, quite honestly, Barack Obama was a better candidate, and, while he can't get the TPers in Congress to get off center on the economy, President Obama's foreign policy successes have earned him the Nobel Peace Prize that was, admittedly, premature.
My point is that the 2008 Democratic field had two absolutely outstanding candidates, while the 2011-12 Republican field is a shameful joke.
Mr Priebus can't buy enough lipstick to pretty-up what he has to deal with.
"most americans believe that with a republican president the private sector will hire more, the economy will do better, the price of gas will fall, we will be energy independent, iran nukes capabilities will be destroyed"......'most americans' LOL. it's you that's smoking the pipe!!!
Fact: most Americans believe the Republican party will bring an end to America and the human race as we know it. Leaving it all to the monkeys to evolve into the dominate species on the planet who, after burying the statue of Liberty on the beach, eat people in a wafer form called soylent green. Oh wait, I think I've confused my Charleton Heston movies again! Republicans: funnel up the wealth from the poor so the rich can create more jobs in India and China, gun toting while jogging, god fearing at xmas, forest razing, water polluting, take that with 2 prozac and swallow it when Obama wins by default. Or please, just take the Prozac and do the whole world a favor?
It is harder because of this liberal media that wouldn't ask tough questions to Obama. Media will make sure that even republicans sneeze, it has to be screened in a global context and then headline would state that republicans don't get it. Come on, republicans are fighting against lobbyists and Obama's liberal agenda that has taken America down to the pit of hell. Nobama 2012.
He called this primary a "fight"??? These candidates have a love affair going on with themselves. You couldn't tell the difference between them . Hell they were all trying to help Perry remember his own policy!!