ARLINGTON, Va. — Three Republican leaders mentioned as possible presidential candidates in 2012 or beyond held a town hall-style meeting at a pizza restaurant to launch a series of listening sessions across America.
Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and rising star Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.) explained their vision for reviving the GOP to a mostly young crowd that packed into a pizza restaurant on Saturday morning.
{mosads}The leaders said the purpose of the session was to find out first-hand the pressing concerns of voters around the country and to discover solutions that rely on free-market principles and individual responsibility.
The chat session marked the launch of the National Council for a New America, an effort that also includes 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), another possible challenger to President Obama in 2012.
“This is meant to bring people together to have a serious discussion about the challenges facing America, small businesses and working families,” said Cantor, who kicked off the conversation at Pie-Tanza Resturant.
The listening tour is a tactic that has been popular among politicians in the past. Hillary Rodham Clinton held extensive listening tours in upstate New York before deciding to run for Senate in 2000 and also did so before her 2008 presidential race.
The Republican Party has been suffering something of an identity crisis since losing the White House and seven seats in the Senate last November. The latest blow was longtime Republican Sen. Arlen Specter’s (Pa.) announcement Tuesday that he would join the Democratic Party, claiming that the GOP had become too radically conservative for him.
Republican strategists have been scratching their collective heads over how to create political momentum while Democrats have lambasted the GOP as the “party of no” and without fresh ideas.
The leaders received positive feedback from the crowd, which included reporters, Republican aides and their friends, but not many new ideas.
Ed McKee, the owner of Pie-Tanza, invited many of his regular customers, who sat in chairs around Romney, Cantor and Bush.
On the subject of education, one attendee declared that “people learn more from listening to Rush Limbaugh than they do in high school or college.”
And while the leaders said they’re willing to embrace the thoughts of the concerned voters, a group of conservative activists who were protesting in the parking lot complained that they were not allowed through the doors.
{mosads}“We’re demonstrating against the fact that this organization set up by RINOs [Republicans in Name Only] have taken immigration off the agenda,” said Michael McLaughlin, a member of the American Council for Immigration Reform, a group seeking to stem the flow of immigrants into the country.
The activists grumbled that Republican organizers did not widely advertise the event. Several wearing shirts declaring themselves “Republicans Against Maverick McCain” craned their necks for a glimpse of the senior lawmaker, who did not show up.
Stephen Isaac, a student at American University, asked Bush, Romney and Cantor what Republicans planned to make college more affordable.
Bush noted that Florida pays the tuition of students who earn above average SAT scores and attend state universities.
But some in the crowd were not so enthusiastic about that proposal.
Jared McMullen, who attended the event, whispered to a friend: “I took the SATs three times and never broke 1000. That doesn’t help me at all.”
McMullen later explained in an interview: “I had a great GPA but I had to go into the Marine Corps Reserve to pay for my tuition at a state school in New York.
“What are you going to do for people who didn’t do so great on the SAT and have aspirations to college? They’re the people who need help. We’re caught out there in the wind because college expenses have gone up.”
Romney repeatedly emphasized that the American people and not government are the solution to the nation’s problems.
The first question he heard from the crowd, however, was: “What should government be doing to assist small businesses?”
Romney answered that businesses need capital to run their operations and expand and said lower taxes on capital or at least not increase them.
Obama has proposed allowing the tax rate on capital gains and dividends to rise from 15 percent to 20 percent by letting cuts passed under former President George W. Bush expire.
Bush, Romney and Cantor all downplayed their future political ambitions.
“None of us are here saying we’re the answers, leadership comes from the people,” said Cantor.
Romney joked that he and Bush are “two has-beens.”
And Bush quipped his retirement from politics is the reason why he has a near-permanent smile on his face.
But the crush of media coverage — reporters set up a bank of six television cameras to record the event — suggests that members of the press aren’t convinced Romney and Bush have given up on dreams of higher office.