[CaptainHaplo]

This "defeat" was needed - though I like most are not happy about it. The fact is the "republican" party has morphed into the "democrat lite" party, and that is why McCain actually started gaining when he picked Palin. She represents the core values that party success was built on.

The fact is that the party needed a defeat like this - not a mortal one - but a humiliating and decisive one. It forces us to "take our medicine" and fix what has been so wrong with the platform for the last 10 years. It was in 96 (maybe 94 or 98) I believe when the last "revolution" occured, thanks to Newt Gingrich. It was then we redefined and stood up for the foundation of what we believed, and in so doing we took over Congress for the first time in something like 40 years. Yet in the time since we have put up a president who was anything BUT conservative in his fiscal policies, as well as a candidate that had demonstrated he wanted to "compromise" more than the true core should accept.

Right now, Obama has 2 years to show real change. In that time, if things are not vastly improved, look for the Congress balance of power to start tipping back toward the right. When it does, it will make it even harder for him to push through truly left wing fringe policy from the bully pulpit. That means in 4 years, he will likely have little to show in real "change" that the American people look at positively. That will open the door for a revitalized and focused conservative leader to step up.