http://thehill.com/homenews/house/281059-major-cantor-speech-to-recast-image-of-gop-and-conservatism

U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is going to make a big speech in which he hopes, or so it’s been reported, to start remaking the Republican Party’s brand.

He might not be the right guy to deliver this speech. Why? Well, he’s on record saying a few things he might wish he could take back.

Let’s look at one such stated policy view.

Remember when that tornado ripped through Joplin, Mo., in 2011? The F-5 monster twister flattened the city, killing many residents. The city was desperate for federal aid, which in the old days would have been a given. Congress would have approved the emergency expenditure and federal help would be on its way.

Well, Majority Leader Cantor didn’t see it that way. He declared that Congress needed to cut spending to match the money it intended to spend on relief for Joplin. Cantor’s statement drew a firestorm of criticism, particularly from those who wondered how he might have felt had a tornado done that kind of damage in his Virginia congressional district. Cantor never answered that question directly.

The money went to Joplin eventually, but after considerable public teeth-gnashing.

The GOP brand is damaged these days. President Obama won re-election in 2012 at a time when he should have been ripe for defeat, given the fragile state of the nation’s economy. The Republicans, though, ran a miserable campaign under the banner carried forward by Mitt Romney. They lost the Latino vote huge, the African-American vote by an even larger margin; they lost the female vote, the Asian-American vote; they lost the Jewish vote. The GOP is now seen as the party of white, male evangelical Christians.

Majority Leader Cantor will have his hands full trying to recast his party’s image. He’ll have to start with his own image among many Americans.

Best of luck, young man.