Does the name Mike Steele not ring a bell?

Sorry but it´s the blacks who fail to understand what America is all about.

It´s not handouts, free phones, food stamps, and another dollar in the minimum wage.

It´s hard work, studying hard in school, maintaining respectful behaviour to your peers and not impregnating anyone not your wife.

I hope we never do appeal to that segment of society who prefers the plantation to the wonders of achievement.

The only way to "connect to African-Americans" is to give them the store. That´s what the Democrats did and look at the fantastic results. 97% of AA women between 18 and 28 voted for the Democrat giveaway. It´s a cultural thing, you know.

The problem ain´t the Pubbies......the problem is the blacks as a group are slaves to the big government teat.

Just think how great this country would be if blacks listened to Walter Williams, Allen West, Larry Elder and so on.

As a group they are pathetic and will sell their soul and freedom to the biggest teat.

No offense but majority of A-A only want to connect with other A-A and the government.

Isn´t "connect" a drug term?

Not a bad thought, but JC isn´t ready for prime time, never will be. Good guy-- I´d be thrilled if he married my daughter-- but not up to the task. Allen West, on the other hand...

He is right. Not all blacks are on welfare, if you didn´t realize this fact. The problem is that the GOP simply gave up on cities/urban areas. You are not going to simply say from miles away that Blacks should join the GOP and the numbers will magically go from 3% to 25%.

J.C. is one of the guys I had great hopes for: a conservative black man from a red state. But, alas, he drags unfortunate baggage that overshadows his favorables.

I know blacks who have intact families, who work hard, go to church, pay taxes and live their lives conservatively but still voted for zippy. Skin color trumps everything else and I don´t see that changing ever.

Go, J.C., Go!

#1, J.C. Watts is not some embarrassing RINO like Michael Steele. He´s a genuine Conservative.

I think that Alicia Colon had the right idea about changing the GOP back to its basics. The establishment does not know how to connect with the minority who are conservative. Don´t knock Steele. He supported tea party and bought us the House in 2010.

if you are black, white, male, female, heterosexual, homosexual...and are a Republican you are a racist, sexist, homophobe...there is no "connecting" with the black community because the democrats and their lackeys in the media will not allow it...Watts, Rice, Thomas, West, Cain etc, etc, etc...left the democrat plantation and will be vilified by the left forever...private citizens who are black, who are conservative, who vote republican, keep that secret to themselves...not because they fear whites, because they fear the black, radical left!

If the republican party would get it through its thick skull that giving away the store doesn´t win you converts, its standing for core values and principles and having someone who can talk clearly about them, they will never win. Rush puts it best when he says that democrats will never vote dem-lite when they can vote the real thing.

If the elites would just understand that, they would have voter numbers that only appear in their wildest dreams.

By ´connect´, I assume JC means, "Romney didn´t promise to give away free stuff like Obama does." ??

The blacks (and most of the others) on the dole have been carefully indoctrinated and shaped to be there. Start with mothers paid to have children as long as there were no fathers around. Then send the children to inner city schools that have been set up to indoctrinate as much as possible while avoiding educating as much as possible.
Give the parents enough stuff so that they have little motivation to do any better. Convince them that they couldn’t get anywhere if they did try and it is any surprise that they sit on their dirty couches talking on their Obomaphones?
Then there is the Democrat controlled city government that makes sure that their voting block remains impoverished and secure. City monies go to their corrupt overseers instead of programs that could actually help.
The black family has been destroyed by the Democrat party. It used to be more stable than white families. Now it leads the way as the white family follows on its own path to destruction
While I have made significant contributions to selected Republicans recently, I haven’t given a dime to the RNC in years. With Watts running it, I (and others) would start giving again.
Blacks and browns have lost the most due to Democrat policies and actions. They have the most to gain when conservative (Republican?) ideas are implemented. It will be a tough sell (education) to get them to understand that. It will be extremely difficult to break through the shell of indoctrination that has been put there since their birth. As hard as it might be, we have to begin somewhere. Somebody like J.C. Watts would be a great way to get started

I used to really like Watts...

Back when he used to be a conservative.

Sorry JC. There is failure to connect because the black community has been bought . . . lock, stock and barrel. Jobless benefits, EBT cards, bogus ´disabilities´ SS claims and these people make more dough than they ever had in their lives.

How you gonna out connect that, man? Tell em they can´t have such generous hand outs because the nation is broke? Give me a break.

In the words of A Few Good Men....watts, minorities and liberals (sorry, I repeat myself)....you can´t take the truth. No work and free stuff is the message that got obama elected.

I use to hate J.C. Watts. He was the Quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners when I attended Mizzou. His passing precision would evicerate our defensive secondary.

Then he went to Congress. He became a voice for conservatism. And I have loved him since.

I don´t think that Michael Steele has done a bad job. But I think that Mr. Watts could bring a flyover point of view that may thwart the efforts of the establishment to ´go along to get along´.

I truly believe that the majority of black Americans can´t even name who their own governor is. It´s all about race and the GOP does not need to waste a dime on trying to reach them. They never appreciate anything we do and are a total lost cause. Their choice.

How can any republican connect with a group that treats even African-American republicans with disdain and derision, a group that doesn´t know that Lincoln was republican, that Frederick Douglas was too, that the democrats were responsible for the KKK and Jim Crow laws, that Eisenhower, a republican, sent troops to integrate southern schools, that it was the large majority of republican votes that passed the Civil Rights Acts. Perhaps the answer is an educational campaign in the inner cities that is needed to pave the way for the republicans.

#2 is correct. It`s not about connecting with blacks. They were going to vote Obama regardless of what Romney would have done. Pandering is what has balkanized our nation and that is and will be our downfall. Another 4 years of the Obama Disturbance and that 47% grows to 60% at which time it`ll be one democrat president after another until mayhem in the streets takes over.

When our nation truly descends into darkness it will happen quickly and be quite ugly.

J.C. Watts is apparently not connecting with white or black people.

#22, Martin Luther King was a Republican too. But he was into judging people not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character, a message that sadly does not seem to resonate these days.

I like JC Watts but I take serious issue with his statement. Being a black conservative I´ve seen how blacks in my neighborhood voted. The comments like We´re going to get more free stuff and Obama´s black like me so I´ll never vote for a white man. Stupid statements like that and don´t discount the fact that inner city black kids are sent to indoc centers, er I mean public schools by single mothers to be babysat oh sorry I mean taught "history". No republican will be able to "connect" with blacks because the dumbocrats got them hooked on the government like crack. And like true addicts it will be hard to get them weened off.

This idiot makes Michael Steele look like Einstein.

I think it´s a mistake to assume that blacks have been bought by government hand-outs or voted Obama only because he´s black. While that´s no doubt true that some are bought by government hand-outs, I think it´s a little more complicated than that and I think there are a couple of much bigger issues at work here, which is why blacks vote over 90% for the Democrat even when the Democrat isn´t black.

The single biggest problem that conservatives aren´t going to solve by ignoring it, giving up on it, or simply saying it isn´t true, and this is a huge problem with Hispanics and Asian too, is that most of them actually and honestly believe that Republicans and conservatives are racist and are driven by racism. And as long as they believe that, being right on the issues and explaining them to voters isn´t going to help. They won´t vote for people they believe are racist. Until conservatives take that perception seriously and actively work to eliminate it, we´re going to lose the minority vote by larger percentages. And, yes, that means conservatives need to actually care about what minorities think about them.

The other big problem is that married men and women tend to vote Republican because married people are less in need of the government to be a surrogate parent or spouse. 55% of whites are married while only 31% of blacks and 28% of Hispanics are married, and everyone is delaying marriage. Note that it´s not simply the handouts but the idea of a safety net that appeals to single women because they want the government to fill the role a husband would have traditionally filled, and that crosses racial and even economic lines.

What connection Republicans had with black voters disappeared in 1964 when Goldwater broke with his life long support of civil rights to vote against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Goldwater was not a racist. He help start the Urban League in Arizona and supported the civil rights movement in other ways. In 1956 and even 1960 the national ticket received a much larger share of the vote than we do now. Since 1960 the percentage of the black vote for our national ticket is 5% or less, on average, in every presidential election. Guess what? In 2016 the percentage of black voters voting Republican for president will be about 5% or less. No matter who we nominate or who our national chairman is. No matter what we do or don´t do as party. Sad but true.

I must have missed it but did we see J.C. Watts out there defending Congressman Allen West? Uh no.

I aleways get a kick out of the conservative J.C. Watts fans, especially after he opens his mouth.

#28 I find your middle paragraph startling. Their(Hispanic/Asian/Black)predisposed and misplaced bias, if as universal as you believe, is continually reinforced by a complicit media that makes re-establishing the truth or changing the perception beyond an uphill battle.

That conservatives do take the time to engage the NAACP or other aggrieved or victim-first groups deserves battle pay and far better results from those groups than the effort expended to attempt to change minds/perception when the truth is so evident and the alternative is as well.

Membership in the permanent victimhood club means never having to bother with the truth.