Think Progress

RNC’s New Website Reflecting Steele’s ‘Urban-Suburban Hip-Hop’ Riddled With Errors, Widely Panned

The Republican National Committee (RNC) proudly launched its new website at GOP.com today, saying that it “will promote increased grassroots participation and innovation, better communication, improved platform compatibility and smarter marketing and fundraising tools for the GOP.” When a visitor goes to the site, the first thing he or she sees is a miniature floating Michael Steele walking onto the page with a greeting (similar in style to the old Microsoft Word Office Assistant):

RNC Website

The RNC press release announcing the site highlighted its widgets, tie-ins to other social media networks, and open platform. But here are the real highlights of the site (which is being widely mocked):

– Michael Steele’s Blog Called ‘What Up?’: In his first post, titled “Let me ask you,” Steele talks about how he finds the Internet an “amazing platform” for “life.”

– No Future Leaders: The new RNC site dedicates a section to “Future Leaders” of the GOP, but after it launched, the page was still empty. It has now been updated asking people to submit the names of possible future leaders.

– Misnaming Jackie Robinson A GOP ‘Hero’: The RNC tries to portray the party as diverse on its GOP ‘Heroes’ page (even though there is currently only one non-Hispanic minority serving as a Republican in the House and the Senate and only two percent of blacks identify as Republican), with people of color making up almost half the list. However, one of the people listed as a “great Republican” is baseball legend Jackie Robinson, who actually identified himself as an independent. In fact, Robinson spoke out about the “hatred” he saw at the 1964 GOP convention, where Barry Goldwater won the nomination. He called it “one of the most unforgettable and frightening experiences of my life.”

– Lists The ‘Iraw’ War As A Republican Accomplishment: The GOP takes ownership of Operation Iraqi Freedom at its ‘Accomplishments’ page, writing, “Five months later, in March 2003 President Bush ordered 250,000 U.S. troops into Iraw.” (View a screenshot here.)

According to GOP new media strategist Mindy Finn, the RNC vetted all the pictures of diverse faces at the top of the site to make sure they’re all Republicans.

The new site is even being ridiculed by conservatives, with Jillian Bandes writing at Townhall.com, “Is Michael Steele’s New RNC Blog Really Called ‘What Up?’ Yes. Yes it is. ::head hits keyboard::.”

Update Note that the RNC doesn't have any Republican accomplishments listed after 2004. RNC administrators also accidentally publicly posted their passwords and files on the site.
Update The Atlantic's Chris Good writes of the GOP site, "Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to run too well on the new Internet Explorer."
Update Marc Ambinder lists the top 10 reasons the RNC website is a failure, including, "When the RNC hosted a kick-off conference call, the website was down," and "The first question on the conference call was from an Hispanic Republican who asked why the GOP site didn't have a Spanish-language page and noted that the White House had one."


90 Responses to “RNC’s New Website Reflecting Steele’s ‘Urban-Suburban Hip-Hop’ Riddled With Errors, Widely Panned”

  1. evangenital says:

    Utter GOPshite…

    Let’s help to kill that vile old stalking horse of a party as soon as possible.

    They have no ideas.

    They simply indulge in idol worship of Reagan and Limpballs.


  2. DNFP says:

    Technology + Regressives = Epic Failure


  3. cd says:

    Maybe the GOP hasn’t noticed but the kids of people who woul require a ‘Urban-Suburban Hip-hop’ appeal tend not to vote.


  4. Zimzone says:

    Steele, a 21st Century Black man acting like an 18th Century White man.

    Mike, let’s go have a beer at the Georgia Peach, mmmkai?


  5. tombaker says:

    shhhhh…

    we should pretend to fear this “staggering achievement”…


  6. Marie says:

    To make use of an old, trite saying, “you can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.”
    RNC — no matter how clever you think you are, no matter how cute you thin is your new website, no matter how much you make Michael Steele dance, to associate your party and all it stands for with a sow’s ear is to insult the pig.


  7. bschmalfeldt says:

    And, just like the GOP’s efforts to connect with the “hip hop generation,” the website has failed.

    Apparently, Firefox can’t connect to it, either!


  8. pags2 says:

    This has to be Steele’s dumbest idea to date. We should take bets on how long it will be before he is dumped.


  9. Marie says:

    no matter how cute you thinK


  10. MCMetal says:

    Can someone please inform that moron , Michael Steele , of the absolute ridiculousness behind trying to appeal to Americans to vote for old white (privileged) males who hate all Americans unlike themselves ?????????


  11. bschmalfeldt says:

    Interesting front page at GOP.com.

    The connection was reset

    The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.

    * The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
    moments.

    * If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer’s network
    connection.

    * If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
    that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.


  12. Virtual Pebble says:

    Eh, wassup, Doc? That wascally wabbit is gonna trip ya up again, Michael “Fudd” Steele. Nah, Michael is the Never-Ready Bunny; he keeps running and running and running into things and tipping over and tipping over…

    But congratulations on finally getting yer page up and taking it out for a shakedown cruise. Guess I shouldn’t say shakedown and cruise in conjunction with the Republipimps though, bit of a perjorative connotation to those words. Eh?


  13. MCMetal says:

    Topping shit with whip cream doesn’t make it a sundae , GOP……..


  14. PatrioticLiberalChristian says:

    “Iraw War” Rap by Tweetie “Jail” Bird

    I tawt I taw WMD.
    I did! I did!
    I tawt dis was a chance for me.
    I did! I did!
    Don’ wanna be poor
    Wanna settle a score
    Wanna give ‘em what for
    So, I start a war.
    I did! I did!


  15. johnbwarner says:

    Looks like someone in charge can see the site is a disaster.
    As of 1:45 EST, it’s down, baby, down. Wonder how long it’ll take them to retool?


  16. pablito says:

    doesn’t run well on firefox either. tp, i think the gop hangs on your every word and they are hard at work editing in response to this post.


  17. majii says:

    Another example of the inherent laziness of the GOP. Throw up anything on a web site thinking everyone will visit it and change their party affiliation. Just seeing Michael Steele walking across the page will turn some people off.
    Pompous, Arrogant @$$e$.


  18. LividLib says:

    ‘Iraw’?

    try some KY jelly.


  19. evangenital says:

    I have not tried to access their site, and I will not be adding that crap to my list of favorites on my laptop.

    If any issue doesn’t immediately fall into the narrow Reagan/Bush/Limpballs slot,
    they are against it.

    Period.

    Why waste their precious time and money on all this site crap of theirs?


  20. Max Anax junius -1 says:

    .

    Someone should really inform Jillian Bandes that her one hyperlink to Steele’s blog is very much like the G(no)P…
    … BROKEN!!!

    .


  21. LividLib says:

    It has now been updated asking people to submit the names of possible future leaders (vertebrates preferred).


  22. Badmoodman says:

    The Atlantic’s Chris Good writes of the GOP site, “Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to run too well on the new Internet Explorer.”

    – - Nor on Firefox or Safari, but then my computer is trained to sniff out online vermin.


  23. Max Anax junius -1 says:

    .

    LIE-CHEAT-STEELE
    THE “NEW” G(no)P

    .


  24. Max Anax junius -1 says:

    .

    GOP.com = web site in disarray
    … Much like the G(no)P!

    .


  25. Buckie Boy says:

    They be Misrepresenting.

    It’s how Steele rolls, it’s how he wears his hat, ther’re hipsters, in with teh cool crowd, phat on dat, baggies down & digs showing, bling bling hot, got’s to ride in my hoopty, we’re tha diverse party of off the handle dogs, see we cool, not old school, not like those old white republicans you see on tha tube which makes 95% of our party, but we gonna represent color…to fool you into thinking were hip.

    Fcuk off RNC, false advertising yourselves is lame. We know who you really are.


  26. EnnuiDivine says:

    It pains me that so many of our brave troops died to protect the valiant Irawi people, that even after we deposed the feared Irawi president Sssam Hyaaein, the region still faces so much turmoil. And now, the FIO and their chairman Migael Stwwlw are looking bomb Irab.

    Sad, so sss.


  27. SP Biloxi says:

    Please… What a buffoon. Steele is still reviving the ‘urban hip-hip’ strategy? Stay classy, Mike. Pass the popcorn please….


  28. shoeless says:

    – No Future Leaders: The new RNC site dedicates a section to “Future Leaders” of the GOP, but after it launched, the page was still empty. It has now been updated asking people to submit the names of possible future leaders.

    Since the page still remained blank, it was updated again asking to people to simply submit names of possible future members.


  29. Xisithrus says:

    I just dont think marketing [jingoism] and politics are compatible as it becomes commerical like stuff made in swet shops and given a made in the USA tag. Bad taste.


  30. jaimymoore says:

    I don’t see why everyone is giving the RNC a hard time about their website. I think they’re doing a very good job representing today’s GOP online.


  31. RantingTommy says:

    more proof that the right wing sees black people as a group, and not as individuals

    they thought hiring Palin would win over the Hillary supporters
    they thought hiring Steele would win over the Obama supporters

    they really can’t see just how racist and sexist they really are


  32. Luis Chapulin M says:

    Homie don’t blog well, so we gonna rap tonight! Repubs are (not) in the Hooooouse!!

    It’s down like G-O-P? Yeah you can see!
    Whose down like G-O-P? The R-N-C!
    You have the new explorer, then you can’t see!

    Lemme hear you say yeeeeahhh!!!


  33. johnny dol1ar says:

    Possible future gNOpig leaders?

    1) Chuck Furris
    2) Nugent
    3) The Gropignator

    I think that pretty much spells redneck knuckle dragger gNOpig.


  34. shoeless says:

    The Atlantic’s Chris Good writes of the GOP site, “Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to run too well on the new Internet Explorer.”

    Maybe it got stuck in the series of internet tubes. Maybe they could deliver it in a big truck.


  35. pete says:

    Leave it to a bunch of intellectually, and morally, stunted people to actually put up such an awful site. It merely supports the contention that they really are that stupid and can’t help it.


  36. Max Anax junius -1 says:

    .

    If it was such a success…
    … You’d think they’d know how to spell it, NO?

    EYE-RACK!
    or
    EYE-ROCK!

    .


  37. GeorgeandDick says:

    George says – Hehehe, I got a nomination right here, Patrick Lanzo, he’s a good old boy and says it like it is, using that Free speech right that Obama is taking away, along with the rest of his freedoms. This patriot, Patrick Lanzo is the exactly the kind of person that is the future of the republican party, a man of principles like me, I have principles, like torture, I loved torture, it made my special parts tingle, Dick would roll his eyes back and twitch and drool at the very thought of torturing some brown people. I’m the decidering guy and I think putting a bunch of minorities on this site is good thinking, seems how the US is gonna be mostly not white real soon…what do you think about this Dick?

    Dick says – Shut it, and get me fresh blood from cute kittens and puppies.


  38. Zimzone says:

    Feel free to add to ‘Future Republic Leaders’ suggestions…

    -David Duke, Jr.

    -Joe Lieberman IV

    -Blanche Lincoln Sr.

    -Jim Inhofe’s illegitimate cousin/daughter

    -Bill Frist’s cat

    -Ricky Sanitorium’s fetus (bronzed)

    -Terry Shaivo

    -John McCain the MCMVIII

    -Rick Perry (deceased)


  39. Zooey says:

    That shitty GOP site won’t load on Google Chrome either.

    Just like Republicans — it doesn’t work.

    Pfffttt…


  40. Mr.Duke says:

    This comment has been voted down. Click to read.


  41. okie dokie says:

    The comments on the vacant “future leaders” page are pretty good. Better read them before they disappear, too.


  42. johnny dol1ar says:

    FUTURE GNOPIG LEADERS!

    Please, anything, anyone, something!

    Toe fungus will do!


  43. tombaker says:

    Dookie!!!!

    Hey –

    What Up?


  44. tombaker says:

    …legend Jackie Robinson, who actually identified himself as an independent…

    Dookie,

    What Up?


  45. pags2 says:

    We should be rejoicing at the stupidity of Republicans. It makes the Dems job a lot easier.


  46. okie dokie says:

    The link to GOP.com is also disfunctional.


  47. noseeum says:

    “Future Leaders” of the GOP

    After spawning season is over, I may have a suggestion.


  48. majii says:

    Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them. If the members of the Republican Party don’t want to be connected with racists, the answer is simple: kick them out of the party or marginalize them. Since the party has shirked its responsibility on this issue, the racists find themselves feeling very much at home among the other members of the party.
    Republicans may lie to America at large and say they’re not racists, but just ask anyone who’s been a lifelong target of racism what he/she thinks. I’m one of those people. The Republican Party has many racists that they’ve intentionally invited into the party.
    They can lie about it as much as they want to, but I know it when I see it.


  49. MapleStreet says:

    Animated Gif and Flash are Sooooooo last century.

    This is what they are doing to jazz up their image. If it were done by a high school kid for a local non-profit charity, it would be rather good.

    But with the entre weight of the GOP behind them, this is seen as novel ???


  50. johnny dol1ar says:

    404

    Repiggie leadership not found.


  51. okie dokie says:

    I’d love to see the proofs from the photo shoot
    for Michael Steele’s picture.

    Photo caption: “Where is everybody?”


  52. Andy Shepherd says:

    The “floating Mike” is a good thing. Guess what else floats?


  53. kali90 says:

    the site is indeed a mess.. I’m a web developer, I checked in the standard validation engines, there are 90 markup errors, 103 CSS errors.. (in case this stuff means anything to anyone here….;~)

    man, what a joke these bozos are… those stupid Reps put Steele up there as a token black guy, just like McCain put up Palin as a token woman.. these pathetic idiots are simply beyond comedy at this point…


  54. shoeless says:

    Yeah, I’m really surprised they could find any old white guys to put on their home page.


  55. shoeless says:

    correction ‘couldn’t’


  56. cd says:

    lol I was trying before to write:

    Maybe the GOP hasn’t noticed but the kinds of people who would require a ‘Urban-Suburban Hip-hop’ appeal tend not to vote.


  57. RUCerious says:

    Caption Contest:

    Hi! My name is NO!


  58. kali90 says:

    now I get nothing but this on the page when visit http://gop.com/:

    An error has occurred trying to make connection to the site. Please try again later.

    22 -> The requested URL returned error: 500

    Trying to access: http://gop.com/index.php/functions/gopMenu

    PATHETIC CLOWNS….


  59. gjdodger says:

    The only bad publicity is your own obituary. So far, Mike Steele is doing a great job, drawing attention to himself much like the laughing man in the dunk tank at the carnival.


  60. RUCerious says:

    I too, develop web apps for my company and this is more than pathetic, it’s, well….Republiklan.


  61. spearNmagicHelmet says:

  62. LeslieBurton says:

    All one has to do is look at the difference between the crowds at the DNC and RNC conventions last year. Kathleen Parker wrote it best. The DNC Convention had diversity and energy. The RNC convention looked like an ad for Depends.


  63. Luis Chapulin M says:

    kali90 says:
    the site is indeed a mess.. I’m a web developer, I checked in the standard validation engines, there are 90 markup errors, 103 CSS errors.. (in case this stuff means anything to anyone here….;~)

    Not being a web developer, but developing a few Intranet applications these days, I do know what that stuff means. It means they must’ve sub-contracted the design to a few low-paid students or self-taught new web designers (*).

    * – Not that there’s anything wrong with self-learning some things, but there’s a big difference between having several years of experience designing web pages, and buying “HTML for Dummies” a week before starting the project.


  64. LividLib says:

    the young lady on the top of the page has some funny looking ears.


  65. LividLib says:

    Zimzone says:

    “Feel free to add to ‘Future Republic Leaders’ suggestions…”

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Dog_tick_5148.jpg


  66. Badmoodman says:

    The Atlantic’s Chris Good writes of the GOP site, “Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to run too well on the new Internet Explorer.”

    – - Seriously, I’ve tried at least five times to access the new GOP site and it won’t load. C’mon guys, I need a good laugh.


  67. Skip57 says:

    I prefer the paper clip


  68. RUCerious says:

    LividLib@#65:

    Her head is supposed to be the O in GOP?
    So her name must be Ann No.


  69. wildwilly1111 says:

    “…a miniature floating Michael Steele walking onto the page with a greeting (similar in style to the old Microsoft Word Office Assistant)…”

    Steele as Clippy – quick, someone do the artwork!


  70. Reggie says:

    Errors are the least of their problems, some moron posted password & admin instructions on new web site.

    They should have known better than to hire Eric Odom to be their IT expert.


  71. flavorino says:

    Remember, the GOP lost their top computer guy in that mysterious plane crash right before he was set to testify in the election fraud case in Ohio.

    I guess they haven’t found a suitable replacement yet.


  72. Doc Rock says:

    I found that Microsoft assistant as inane and worthless as shady our former Lt. Governor (here in Md).


  73. Pilotshark says:

    “The first question on the conference call was from an Hispanic Republican who asked why the GOP site didn’t have a Spanish-language page and noted that the White House had one.”

    Then Micheal said>>> well thats a easy answer,,,,, we really didn’t think any Hispanic that was a republican should be able to read English.


  74. Wiz says:

    I looked at the Republican heros section at Steele’s website. It looks like there are none past Reagan, none of them appear to be actually alive. Noteable exceptions from the Republican hero list: Colin Powell, George Bush(either one), Richard Nixon and Herber Hoover, and John McCain. My favorite is Pinckney Pinchback, cool name. I also noticed that most of the people on there are pre-20th century. I was going to count how many were pre-20th century, but the site is so slow I lost interest.


  75. Vinnie says:

    My first attempt to access the page gave one without the CSS files or images. Very bad looking.

    Later, I got on but still didn’t see Steele as the dreaded paper clip. What I did see is that most of their ‘heroes’ are black people. Well, this isn’t a parallel universe. Most of the photos were of blacks in the nineteenth century. And Ronald Reagan is thrown among them. This is one of the oddest groupings of people I can think of.

    If the Repugs are having to go back to the 1800’s (literally!) to find the black heroes of their party, they’ve clearly got an issue attracting blacks to their cause. Maybe if their ‘leader’ Rush wasn’t such a racist pig they’d have a little easier time attracting minorities.


  76. Wiz says:

    They forgot to put Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity on the Republican heros list. Whas up wit dat?


  77. Vinnie says:

    To think that they’ve put the great Frederick Douglas up there as a Republican hero shows how out of touch they are with reality. I would be a Republican myself if it were 1860, but the fact is that this party has become the home of the most racist elements of today’s American political landscape. I hardly think this is how Frederick Douglas would have wanted to be remembered.


  78. Vinnie says:

    BTW, the site is slow as can be but it is working for me. But I still haven’t seen the cute Michael Steele animated GIFs. Maybe someone running that site has a brain and figured that those should be removed.


  79. katy says:

    hey! it made the googlenews front page:

    New Republican Party site crashes hours after launch
    Christian Science Monitor – Matthew Shaer – ?20 minutes ago?
    Michael Steele said that GOP.com would rival social networking efforts undertaken by the Democrats. But on Tuesday, the site was plagued by bugs and glitches.
    Michael Steele’s New Domain Washington Post
    New Republican Party 2.0 web site debuts with bugs and blanks San Francisco Chronicle
    AFP – Kansas City Star – Politico – Atlantic Online
    all 39 news articles »

    http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&ncl=dTQ68-I87elwEEMnsXg8qHcIvb9nM&topic=n


  80. bigtime patriot says:

    Leave it to the Republicans to have a mispelling on their site. Don’t they know how to spell Wassup?

    I tried to sign up, but the site keeps crashing…


  81. katy says:

    The best part is the splash page background looks like the flag of the People’s Republic of China. Hint: Try a nice American flag for a background when the site comes back up.

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ybenjamin/detail??blogid=150&entry_id=49465

    you gotta read this…


  82. jchassey says:

    Other Recent inductees to the Gop.com Heroes page:

    Larry Craig, Ted Stevens, Tom DeLay, Bob Ney, Jack Abramoff, Mark Foley,
    Kenneth Lay, Timothy McVeigh, David Koresh, Ted Kaczynskii, Ted Haggard,
    Ted Bundy, David Duke, Strom Thurmond, Scooter Libby, Both the Whitewater and the Iran Contra Gangs and of course Sarah Palin

    Sadly, George Bush will never make the list.


  83. S.D. says:



    Seriously, the people I showed gop.com to thought it was a gag. The Red Communist look is just Unreal…


  84. Doctor J says:

    Another cogent question from Michael Steele on the website:
    “Why are you are Republican? Think about that for a minute.”

    I thought about for TWO minutes and I’m STILL confused. Isthere anyone there who can write a grammatical sentence?


  85. akindependent says:

    FutureLeaders@GOP.com

    Go to the new GOP website and nominate Olympia Snowe as the future leader of the GOP.


  86. moonsha says:

    This is a concerted effort to sabotage Steele by GOP insiders. They want him gone.


  87. Amerifawkes says:

    Ha ha…..

    “Go to the new GOP website and nominate Olympia Snowe as the future leader of the GOP”

    Even better – let’s Google bomb the domain. I’ve got 7-8 blogs with some decent page rank, which would be a start. I nominate we bomb it linking from the keyword,

    Traitors of America

    Anyone in?


  88. Amerifawkes says:

    Go and to their RED site and login so you can tell them “why your a Republican”.

    Mine went something like;

    I like Republicans because they are the salt of the earth, country folk, with REAL values, and live where the REAL Americans live……….you know…….morons.

    Also, because I only have a grade 9 education, I’m quite hairy, and have a really bad personal hygiene problem.


  89. estetik says:

    Pretty soon, the Google will be able to find the site. Then people will be able to point their web browsers to GOP.com. That’s rilly, rilly cool. All the cool kids will want to go to GOP. karin estetigi ameliyatlari


  90. karadagli61 says:

    Thank you for your sharing.!



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