WASHINGTON – Dumber than a bag of rocks comes to mind. Republicans have made a never ending spectacle of themselves this fall, with Pres. Obama and his team getting luckier by the day. After splitting the women’s vote in 2010, it seems Republicans are determined to reverse that miracle with their fetish for failure.

Rick Perry being floated as potential presidential material was likely the largest speculative wash-out seen yet. How anyone around him thought the GOP primary electorate would buy his immigration philosophy is beyond me. The general election voter, especially independents, very unlikely to warm to sonogram Rick’s idea of individual freedoms for women, either.

As for Herman Cain, it’s obviously not dawned on Tea Party Republicans that they cannot win in 2012 without women. The establishment is getting it and that’s why Cain’s doing a press conference today. It comes just as the Washington Examiner, that bastion of liberal media hype (end snark), reports yet another woman talking about Cain’s proclivities, which according to the Examiner story also includes Cain being cheap.

The women’s vote is also what makes the latest baloney of a Newt Gingrich boomlet equally ridiculous and sure to end in doom, though that doesn’t mean Republicans won’t put us all through it.

This does give you an idea of the Republican establishment’s message problem with women, which is why Mitt Romney is standing over in his tidy, clean little corner yelling “Mitt’s It.”

Nobody’s buying that one yet, but looking at the women’s vote he’s got the best chance of any of the Keystone candidate crew Republicans are hoisting on us this year. All of whom, even given the historical economic numbers that point to defeat, are giving Pres. Obama and his re-election team dreams of victory exactly one year from today.

Taylor Marsh’s new e-book, The Hillary Effect – Politics, Sexism and the Destiny of Loss, the view from a recovering partisan, will be published on November 8th. Marsh is an author, Washington based political analyst, veteran national politics writer and commentator on national politics, foreign policy, and women in power. She has reported from the White House, been profiled in the Washington Post, The New Republic, and has been seen on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic, as well as on radio across the dial and on satellite, including the BBC. Marsh lives in the Washington, D.C. area. This column is cross posted from her new media blog.