Do you get brownie points if you publish this story before the election? Do you get smugness points?

Is there any point?

I guess you haven't noticed, but the election isn't until next week. The Republicans haven't lost yet.

Yes, it seems real bleak for the party of the obscenely rich and extremist fundamentalists right now. But the eggs have not hatched yet.

There are so many possibilities for Republican victory that it is foolish beyond description to publish such an article now.

If things go as they seem to be going, and Obama wins with a 10 point victory, and in addition if the Democrats get a filibuster-proof majority, there will be plenty of time to do post-mortems and gloat and dance on graves. Why do you have to do it now, before the election is over?

Just wait, OK? Wait until Obama has actually won, is actually the president-elect.

I will be sick enough if McCain wins. If McCain wins after endless gloating about his defeat, it will just be that much worse.

Republicans will react to a loss in November by declaring that John McCain was not "pure enough" to win, and that the only solution is to be even more dedicated to the Grover Norquist/James Dobson axis.

Sarah Palin will not be nominated for president in 2012 or 2016. She will almost certainly settle into FoxNews where she will form a triumvirate between Sean Hannity and Bill O'Rielly: Thundering to the faithful what treasonous, unholy actions are being taken by Godless Democrats.

The Republican nominee in 2012 will be even more radical that Sarah Palin, but also quicker on his (it will be a male) feet and able to rattle off (made up) facts with aplomb. And the campaign waged by Conservatives will be more vicious and mean spirited than anything we have seen before because a re-election of Barak Obama would grossly violate God's will for America and cause the downfall of world civilization (those are the words we will hear): Culminating with exhortations that “true Conservatives must do whatever it takes to bring God back into the White House” (with the full implications, but none of the accountability).

It will be ugly.

As an add-on, Farnsworth is correct to warn against gloating. I am still not confident that a combination of the Bradley Effect and Republican voter intimidation won't allow John McCain/Sarah Palin to squeak by, with whatever aid a 5/4 Supreme Court can provide.

I won't gloat afterward either. We need to bring America together and not show the kind of behavior that Republicans did after taking over Congress in 1994. Conservatives will still, naturally, seethe with hate, and there is nothing we can do about that. Hate is a bedrock tenet of Conservatism and they will not give it up, every. But I, for one, will not contribute to the river of venom that will be the Conservative movement after Election Day.

How about all of them? How all of them line up at the bow of the Titanic to scream that line and then we push them into the drink.

The vast right wing conspiracy has cost the U.S. TRILLIONS of dollars, lives, liberty, justice, the future.

Piss off you wanker GOPs.

"Its ideological insistence on cutting taxes for the richest Americans ran up a record deficit."

There is nothing ideological about it. Ideological decisions are made out of principle, regardless of the merits of those principles.

But flat tax schemes and lower taxes for the rich are self-serving decisions, not ideological ones. They serve the financial needs of the wealthy base of the GOP, nothing more.

"Republicans can pretend that nothing has really changed, that this is still a 'center-right' nation, and that only an ill-timed economic meltdown cost them the White House" -- then GOD BLESS THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN.

It would stand as proof of the old saying about an ill wind blowing no good -- an odd phrase, when you get down to analyzing it, but it means almost ANY disaster can have an unexpected good result rising out of the ashes.

This would be a prime example -- if it took the Wall Street debacle to finally displace the destructive Republican Party, then let's consider at least THAT much of the disaster to be beneficial.

sorry to begin with some fundamental political science, but america has plutocrats. the important aspect of the word is, a class distinguished by great wealth also has great power in politics. currently they fund the republican party. but they aren't republicans, they are rich. if the gop folds up out of some combination of incompetence and ideology, the plutocrats will find another party, or simply make one.

so mr kamiya's glee at the current failure of the party of the rich is misplaced. the republicans will be back, or they'll be replaced. america will continue to be managed by the plutocrat party, whatever it's name, for the benefit of plutocrats.

people like mr kamiya might grow up and say "let's stop the musical chairs and make america a democracy." but he's not smart enough to figure that out, a near universal feature of american politics. even the 'liberals' seem to think the constitution is written on stone tablets.

in any event, the gop and it's twin brother, the dems, are not ships, they are degenerative diseases. while they rule, america will continue to slide into third world status.

A few years ago, I visited the Biltmore in Ashville, NC, advertised as "America's largest home!" It had a few MILLION cubic feet. 250 rooms. At least 40 bathrooms. A dining room so big that my entire house would easily fit inside, with room to spare.

The really interesting part, IMHO, was the immense contrast between the family and guest space (literally fit for royalty) and the servant's quarters--tiny cubes of rooms barely big enough to squeeze in a single bed and tiny dresser.

THAT'S the Conservative ideology in a nutshell. Concentrate the wealth in the hands of a small handful of wildly wealthy, with the rest of us scrambling for the crumbs, cramped in the tiny little rooms, and happy to be inside out of the cold. (Or so they think). The mythology that pulls in the Billy Bob's and Tommy Joe's (plumber or otherwise), even if they're not Wingnuts, is that elusive promise that THEY'LL get to be one of the anointed ones. So, they don't want the rich taxed, because they plan to get there themselves! Yeah, right. Delusional much?

SUPPLY SIDE ECONOMICS DOESN'T WORK. It has failed, Failed, FAILED, and deservedly so. That's why Bush tossed an "economic stimulus package" our way, in a pitiful effort to drive DEMAND, the true gauge of a successful economy.

Anything less than helping to create a vibrant, thriving middle class is doomed to failure.