ABC journalist Barbara Walters took to the airwaves on Wednesday to assail the Republican Party for being "behind" on social views. Walters and her View co-hosts looked to analyst Matt Dowd for post-election spin. Per usual, he spent his time lecturing the Republican Party, repeating an assertion that the GOP represents "Mad Men" and not "Modern Family" America.
Walters, who sometimes pretends she's still an objective journalist, derided, "You look at their platform. You looked at things that were said about rape – I mean they were behind in their social views." [See video below. Mp3 audio here.] Earlier, replying to Dowd's gloomy predictions, she wondered, "So does that mean that Democrats are going to win and win and win?"
On Wednesday's Good Morning America, Dowd mocked, "What's happened with the Republicans is they are, the Republican Party, is a Mad Men party in a Modern Family America. And it just doesn't fit anymore."
Talking to the View ladies, the analyst, who previously worked for Democrats and Republicans, insisted that the GOP could only win with a Latino or a woman at the top of the ticket.
A transcript of the November 7 exchange is below:
11:23 a.m. EDT
BARBARA WALTERS: Well, one of the men I was up with late last night was Matthew Dowd, a battle-tested political strategist who was in the trenches with both Republican and Democratic campaigns in the past. Please welcome, Matthew -- you haven't slept at all? Do you know what you're saying?
MATT DOWD: Barely. Barely. But I appreciate spending the night with you. I usually don't go on television after I spend the night with a woman.
JOY BEHAR: Did you share a cigarette the two of you?
WALTERS: One of the things you said last night, early on, but especially later, is, we are in a different country now. What do you mean?
DOWD: Yeah, we're, it’s an entirely different country. And it's been moving that way over the course of the last 25 years, but the electorate is now starting to reflect what's going on in the country. And what the country is, 25 years ago, 90% of the people that voted were white. Last night, 72 percent of the people that voted that were white. That means 27 percent or 28 percent were minorities. Single women now are a huge share of the vote. People that are not affiliated with religions, as it was traditionally, are now the largest share they’ve ever been. The country is very different.
WALTERS: So does that mean that Democrats are going to win and win and win, if we're looking at that group of people?
DOWD: If the Republicans don't change and don’t adopt to what the country looks like, I said this morning that the Republicans right now are a mad men party in a modern family world. And if all parties adopt to what has to happen, but if you take a look at the two candidates that presented themselves to the country last night, the president more reflected what the country looks like. If you think about his biography, if you think about who he is, here's an African-American man, who is the son of a white woman and an African father. Here's somebody who traveled all over the country. And that dynamic and that biography reflects more of what the country is.
ELIZABETH HASSELBECK: So if you're talking Republican, let’s say think 2016, a lot of people are asking, now okay who is that Modern Family Republican ticket in a Modern Family world then, in your opinion?
DOWD: Well, to me, there's two directions that they’re going to have to go in. This is the difficulty there will be. These two directions, can they get through the Republican primary with these two directions because they're so hinged to cultural issues -- gay marriage amendments passed last night. The first openly gay woman has been elected to the U.S. Senate in the place Paul Ryan was from, Wisconsin, was elected last night. And can they get through? I think that the only way they’re going to recover is to nominate a Latino, somebody like Marco Rubio, or a woman.
HASSELBECK: Or both.
DOWD: Or both, or a woman that is a Latino. But I think that’s what they’re going to have to do. They have to do some serious soul-searching.
WALTERS: But they're not ready to do that yet. You look at their platform. You looked at things that were said about rape – I mean they were behind in their social views.
BEHAR: Mercifully they all lost. Mourdock last, Todd Akin lost. All the horrible things they said are gone.
