If moderates want less government than why do so-called moderates lik Megan McCain want to answer every problem or preceive problem with another government program. If a politicians does not react to every problem with a goenrment problem, they are called selfish and cruel.

If moderates want some support from conservatives, they are going to have to demonstrrates that they are not just another idiot big government, big spending Republican.

“Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.”

In otherwords, Rick (and those who think along similar lines) still don't seem to get it.

Let's review. The GOP loses big among blacks and Hispanics, Jews, the young, academics, urban dwellers, union members, environmentalists, teachers and women.

I don't see much hope for the party unless it undergoes a serious rebranding.

Look at the pounding Specter is getting. He's not a typical Democrat. He's a much more typical north eastern Republican but the party doesn't want him and actively has tried to boot him even though Tooney can't & won't win.

btw – Markos isn't some wild eyed fanatic. He's much more pragmatic than the Republican leaders of today. And Lamont would have represented his constituents with a much higher approval rating than what Lieberman is getting today.

Politics, like the economy, is cyclical. Even great political movements gather moss…and entropy slows them down.
Look at how FDR's New Deal was withering until revitalized by LBJ's Great Society in the 1960s.

For anyone despairing of the GOP…or crowing about the current preeminence of the Democrats…why not look to Great Britain.

In 1997 Tony Blair's New Labour was elected in a landslide. He was like a rock star…and he ushered in “Cool Britannia” and all that.
The media loved him. An news presenter on the BBC. . . which is just as objective as the U.S. media . . . crowed that champagne corks were popping all through the Broadcast Center on election night 1997.

Move ahead 13 years. . .Great Britain is bankrupt. . .welfare benefits are at record levels . . . the government seems unable to check Muslim radicals immigrating from Pakistan and denouncing British values (and occasionally blowing things up) while collecting welfare checks [the London bus and subway suicide bombers were also, oddly enough, multiple welfare fraudsters]…taxes have been increased on everything to pay for the rising benefits culture. . .crime is rising, and the nihilistic Chav culture is bring “A Clockwork Orange” into everyday reality . . . .

The result: Even the left-wing “Guardian” now concedes an overwhelming Conservative victory is inevitable next year…despite the fact the Conservative Party is filled with largely vacuous nonentities determined not to voice any opinion whatsoever. They are not Labour, and that is all that matters.

Governments defeat themselves.

So I would say to Rick Moran. . .the Democrats will likely be out of power within a decade.
Perhaps the American media will succeed in sheltering Obama from damage for two full terms…they have done an excellent job so far…but who will succeed him?

The Wheel of Fortuna will turn. . .that much is eventual . . .and those like Karl Rove who believe they could engineer permanent majorities will always fall under the wheel.

Also, keep in mind that conservative principles are extremely difficult sell to Americans – not because they're conservative but because they're, well, principles.

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.

Galbraith, John Kenneth