Right now I'd love to see Palin run in 2012 She has no chance against the Obama of '08. The Obama of '12, who knows? History can be fickle.

However, since we've finally jumped through the hoop regarding electing a person of race to the executive branch, and that accomplishment becomes, welcomely, a blase' factor in the electorate's voting decisions, then will we find ourselves back to the culture wars?

A massive chunk of the minority population are also devoutly religious and, all other things being equal, might just as well vote "god" as "race."

Still, I'd guess that's a generation and a half down the line...?

The Republican Party has been since the 1870s the party of white, Protestant America. Such people are still a majority in huge swaths of the country, and that is not likely to change any time soon. McCain was not wiped out like Goldwater, not even close. With an idiot in the White House with a 27% approval rating, two failed wars, and a failed economy under his belt, the Republicans still got 46% of the vote. That doesn't sound like a party on its last legs to me. They still have the unswerving support of religious zealots, the extractive and defense industries, most of the officer corps and senior NCOs, many wealthy doctors and lawyers of the county club sort, and the anti-gay, anti-abortion, and anti-black crowd. Their appeal to blood and soil American nationalism (see Victor Davis Hanson) and free market idolatry (see Alan Greenspan) stilol strikes a cord with millions. Reports of the republican's death throes are highly premature.

J6P(Joe6pack) is just a guy, out here in the great "flyover", who may have had a union job at some point, now he's got a pickup truck and various magnetic door signs proclaiming his craft de jour. he tries to work for cash, if it's a real big job and he don't think he's going to take it in the shorts, maybe he'll go for a check. Joe don't really give a fuck anymore about this fucking country or anything else accept beer(maybe a bottle of JimBeam), his family and his pickup truck. Joe don't vote, he's working or drinking. if your to fat, to rich, to connected, to lazy, to dumb, to busy(writing mortgages) to fix shit around your house or need a cord of wood, lawn mowed,driveway patched, turds in the toilet, roofing, crashed the car--hey, call Joe. Joe can git-r-done. don't know Joe, call Jose--same guy, different accent.

fuck a republican!

Limbaugh sneered, "So all of you wizards of smart on our side, all of you intellectualoids who think that Palin was a drag, the party loves Sarah Palin. . . . Twenty percent of Republicans who say she hurt the ticket, you are probably the ones that need to go and walk and join across the aisle with the others that you find so much more palatable because they are able to communicate and they are writers and they are intellectual ... The party loves her."

So basically the ability to communicate at all will be a liability in 2012. Is this drug-addled slob really being allowed to speak for the Republican Party? Or did he use air quotes on the radio? No wait, that's even worse.

I wonder if Limbaugh was listening to himself when he was telling 20% of his party to join the Democrats. Losing a fifth of their support would guarantee that the Republicans never win a presidential election ever. It's a recipe for party suicide.

Not that I mind, by the way. Never is just about the right time frame for another Republican administration.

It says that 69% of Republicans love Sarah Palin. Seems like a good percentage of Republicans, but what are Republicans, 40% or so of all voters? This means less than 30% of the total population of voters loves her. Do they still think they can win with someone so divisive that she won't get any votes OTHER than that right wing base?

The GOP needs to look deep into its soul and try to figure how it ever stuck to a leadership that falsified evidence and let this nation to war against an innocent country. I still think Americans are centre right people generally speaking, but they are fed up with the war in Iraq, especially now that it has been revealed the country was deliberately lied to...all other matters, abortion, immigration, taxes are secondary. falsely sending this nations young men and women to kill another nations young men and women is the worst thing any leader could do and people who were card carrying GOP supporters realize that now ( I will add that economy isnt secondary, but real conservatives realized that only a leadership so beholden to the corporate phallus could falsify evidence to commit war crimes)

Another thing: Working class professionals, a small minority in the 50's, voted Republican because they saw a bright future where they too could become rich and wealthy and share in the company's profits and so they opposed taxation. I have a Masters in Engineering and work for a corporation but I dont feel my future in bright because corporations views on workers and worker retention and worker compensation have changed dramatically since the 50's. Before having a Masters meant you were set for life, but now it means nothing because corporations can and will shop your job overseas it means for profits for the executives. and even if they dont, your quality of work life balance sucks because the threat of job loss hangs around you like sword of Damocles, which mgmt demanding more hours be put in for same pay.

My point is that young professionals dont see themselves sharing in the wealth anymore ...the CEO's and execs have figured out how to keep it for themselves..so the next best choice for young professionals is to pay more taxes with the hope the universal health care will take care of our huge expenses in our old age

Some of your best writing ever, Gary. Incisive, surgical, smart. Well done.

As for the GOP, they're not going to get the message by 2012. The base is too much in denial and they're going to run Palin against Obama, which will be a side splitter. After that 400 EV drubbing, the GOP might start to realize, "Hey, maybe gays, god, guns, slander and sucking off the rich aren't connecting with the voters after all." Then we might start to see a different party. Not before. By then, they're going to be buried for 50 years.