poor mr mccain he was just too old, too stiff & too angry. He also paid the price for george bushes failures.

Personally i think ron paul was right the republican party has been hijacked by the far right neo-cons. They used to stand for fiscal conservatism, small government & non interference foreign policy. Look where america is : trillions of debt after inheriting a surplus bogged down in 2 conflicts abroad and an even bigger government expenditure.

So if the GOP dont stand for conservitism what do they stand for now and which direction do they need to go? is it further to the right ie palin or more centrist ?

The RepubliCorp has no one to blame but itself. Either they didn't see that the current administration was trashing the country like a drunken frat party or they did and didn't care. Either way they are responsible. And now they've paid the price. Look at the election results. Even where the DemoCorps didn't win they made historic inroads. Maybe this is what it will take for them to wake up. But that is unlikely.

If they truly want to get back in the game they should consider having a discussion with Ron Paul. He's one of the few real Republicans left: fiscal conservancy, non-interventionism, small government, citizens' rights, states' rights, etc. They've gone 180deg from all of this. Frankly, the RepubliCorps don't even have the right to call themselves Republicans. They abandoned the basic tenets of their party ages ago.

So, they have a choice: abandon their unabashed focus on elitism and exclusion and go back to their roots. Or, knowing the dark days that have been thrust on this country by the mindless recklessness of the present adminsitration, wait for the opportunity to blame Obama for not carrying a magic wand. Be the opportunists they've proved themsleves to be and go back to business-as-usual in four years. That seems more likely.

I say again, Mitt Romney should have been the VP nominee for the Republican party - his economic understanding would've covered McCain's weakness. Plus, McCain's problems occurred when he departed from his moderate stance - that cost him.

Bobby Jindal, in my opinion, will be coached and matured into the Republican's answer to Obama. The Republican party itself has to expand and reach out from its southern strongholds and target the north - that means becoming less conservative and more liberal.

We've seen the end of Sarah Palin too, she will never run for President because the media made easy gains attacking her.

[edit on 5-11-2008 by infinite]

They need to move back toward Ronald Reagan and be a party of true conservative principles. Every time they run a candidate with moderate proposals or credentials, they lose, and it happened again last night. They need to regroup, kick the RINOs out of the party and get back to true conservatism.

The popular vote totals and exit polling data from last night back this up. Democrats had a 39-33% lead in party affiliation, which was the margin of victory. However, for all this talk of overwhelming turnout and 130-140M voters nationwide, only about 118M appear to have shown up, less than in 2004. Again, in exit polling, we see that whites, who usually vote 55%+ for Republicans did so last night...however, they made up the lowest percentage of the electorate ever: 75%. They were 79% in 2006. Given that overall turnout was down, it is clear that this is not a case of minority population growth overwhelming the Republican vote.

No, the GOP vote simply did not show up. All those right-leaning voters that McCain has alienated over the years finally came back to haunt him last night.



[edit on 5-11-2008 by vor78]

They need to become social liberals and fiscal conservatives.

It will not happen, but if they focussed on three things, they would win a vast majority of any nationwide vote.

1) Protect the borders of the U.S.

2) Balance the budget.

3) Respect the privacy of the people and leave them to their business.