If McCain is so terrible a candidate that Republicans are willing to concede an election to Clinton, so be it. But people should be aware of what they are doing.

Well, I can't speak for other Republicans, but this Republican took Shaun's essay as an “observation,” not “advice.”

Furthermore, I think he's spot on the money.

The minority vote is one of the reasons that the Republicans do not know what to do. The only racial group that the Repubicans have a chance to get votes from are whites. so the Republicans have faced with the problem of trying to get a higher percentage of the white votes during each election cycle. I do not believe that it is possible. That is why doscussing a downcycle for the Republicans is laughable since in 8 to 12 years, the percentage of the white vote that Repulbicans would have to get to remain viable will be so high as to be unrealistic.

What the Bush Admnistration has done with its ineptness is to speed up the process of the Republican collapse by lowering the percentage of the white vote that the Republican Party will receive.

Given a Clinton White House and the chance of more than 60 Democratic seats in the Senate, the dying Republican Party will be lucky to have one third of the seats in Congress in 12 years.

Look at the inner cities like Philadelphia. Is there a single elected Republican? That is what the future of the U.S. will resemble in the near future. And just like Philadelphia, the only relevant election will be the Democratic Primary. Even the media will have to give up covering the Republican primary when the Republican nominee has no chance of winning.

As far as I thought, Rudi's Rethuglican Party has sought to be the result of building a stool of 3 legs, socons, ficons and defcons. All 3 legs absolutely have to come together to win an election…………what's so surprising about that?

I grant you eight years of GWB has badly alienated the socons (too light on ILLEGAL immigration), badly alienated the ficons (disregard for shrinking the government) and badly alienated the traditional defcons (abysmal EXECUTION in Iraq).

The fact that no candidate to date has sufficiently and convincingly addressed the entire stool seems to be the problem………not that “the Party” has morphed from its heritage.

Although, as usual, we appreciate the non-Republicans for giving us advice! After all, they have found that a one-legged stool is much easier to build.

McCain's problem is that he has pandered but no one believed it. He's firmly attached his lips to the behinds of Pat Robertson and George W. Bush in an attempt to appeal to the conservative base that didn't support him in 2000. And what was he doing when he caved to Bush on the issue of torture? McCain's maverick image may have been true at some point, but it's nothing but an illusion in 2008.

Other than your usual and reliably gratuitous racist swipe at immigrants, you are more or less correct in stating that the dinosaurs don't know where to turn.

I believe that the Repulblican base has come to realize how bad the Bush Administration has been for them, no conservative results while destroying the conservative party. However, they have no idea what direction to head into given the problems created by the stupidity and ineptness of Bush, Hastert, and Frist.