....the problem is your politics and policies. You claim that after Goldwater blacks stopped voting Republican. Actually, the migration of minority voters towards to the Democrats started with Roosevelt and the New Deal. It just took the GOP's "southern strategy" of getting white racist southerners to vote for them, which culminated with Goldwater's '64 campaign and Nixon's subsequent success in playing the white resentment card that put the GOP in the mess they're in today. You won the elections, so long as you were 90%. Well, you're going to be a numerical minority by the middle part of this century. The days of running Willie Horton ads and whining about 'welfare queens' are over. You see the numbers. So does everyone else, outside of Wasilla and Pat Buchanan's wet dreams for 1960.

And if you think that phony attempts at repackaging what is a essentially a racist message and party is going to change anything, you're sorely mistaken. If you want black votes, you're going to have to campaign on issues important to black voters (and it's not capital gains tax cuts or accusing non-white judicial nominees of hating white men). If you want Latino voters, stop bashing Latino immigrants and playing to the base of white retirees with English only laws. If you want minority votes, you're going to have to change your policies, which even you know deep down won't happen. Welcome to second party status. You've earned it.

What I've always noticed about the Republican Party is that they'll find ways to spend $$$ on Defense and the latest Lock 'Em Up policy, but can't seem to find any money for preventive things that are just as good long term. Say, like schools, roads, the environment, and laws that are enforced so that there is equality for all that are not upper middle class white and male (The majority of the USA, by the way).

Another thing that the Republicans are good at (and that's coming back to bite them now) is that they wrapped themselves as the Party of Morals, while casting the Democratic Party as somewhat too liberal, too immoral, etc. Since we have a bunch of sexual scandals coming from the Republican side, their hypocrisy is being exposed (pun intended) for all to see.

They can try to wrap their failed policies in the sheep's clothing of the African American head of the National GOP, Michael Steele. By the way, anyone can do a Google search or check out books or magazines in the library and see what Michael Steele has accomplished, which isn’t much. Or they can try to do the wedge issues that they’re infamous for, such as the Willie Horton ad in 1988. Obama and the Democratic Party aren’t home free though. If this recession gets worse, it could be the necessary impetus to propel the Republican Party back into the White House and perhaps both houses of Congress by 2012.

It probably won't work long-term, because of their historical antipathy towards minorities, starting with Barry Goldwater in 1964 rejecting the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, to the infamous "Southern Strategy" of Richard M. Nixon in 1968, and everything else since then, like wedge issues like the Abortion issue, to cite another example.

Republicans don't have the trust of minorities, a good majority of women, a lot of the young voters, or gays. Either the Republican Party changes itself for the better of this country, or eventually they'll go the way of the Whigs.

Media outlets are in urban centers? Really? Imagine that. So are the offices of most corporations. Attempting to correlate office location with support for Obama is silly. Including throw away lines like "and the love shown to him by the mainstream media" just makes you sound bitter.

Support for Obama among the talking-heads increased after:

1. Sarah Palin was chosen with little to no vetting, and then displayed to the world why people should be qualified for a job before several million interviewers start asking questions.

2. John McCain kept making mistakes, such as his much celebrated trip to Washington to 'weigh in' on the financial crisis - where it was revealed that he didn't utter a word. Thanks for saving the day!

3. Joe the Plumber, a liar, was portrayed as a business man who worried about taxes on wages over $250,000. The first thing to point out is that most people can only dream of making $50,000, and the argument on taxes at a higher level is moot, and appears esoteric. It was humorous to see, after it was revealed that Joe was NOT a plumber, and in fact did not own a business, was not a licensed tradesman, and gosh wouldn't the state like to see evidence of his ability to do more than sell rubber washers over the counter.....he disappeared from my TV screen. Looking to create a wedge issue, the GOP couldn't find a single credible 'normal' person in a nation of 300+ million? You must be joking. Oh, yeah, you were, with Sarah Palin.

4. Barack Obama simply made fewer mistakes. Even those he did make were not the cringe-inducing variety that that doddering old fool and his ice-queen managed on a daily basis.

The GOP succeeded admirably in being the party of the rich and white. Nobody was fooled by the selection of SP as a running mate and what it was supposed to represent - inclusiveness. It represented rural, white America yet again, full of divisiveness and vitriol. The vetting process that POTUS candidates have to endure is thorough and complete. There is no question that Obama is an American citizen, and yet GOP voices repeatedly asked him to 'show us your birth certificate', or wondered about him 'palling around with terrorists'.

You mention voting districts that are set up to include large numbers of minorities, while ignoring the fact that GOP states are masters at gerrymandering districts to entrench old interests for decades. Here, both parties are guilty, and I fail to see why one party is guiltier. It wouldn't be an issue for you if the GOP had won the election.

If it had, you would be writing speeches about the proud democratic tradition.

Right now, the GOP is an organization that seeks to create fear to advance its agenda. In that respect, it is the GOP that have become terrorists. Your continued talk about 'urban' 'rural', 'values', 'principles' is empty of meaning.

People want results-based government. Not empty words. And not people who continue extending the conga-line of 'sorry I failed to live up to my principles'.