Yesterday Jeff explored whether McCain has a chance: bq. Historians--people who get paid to think about this stuff for a living--don't rate McCain's chances at all. Look at who he gets compared to--Adlai Stevenson in 1952, Hubert Humphrey in 1968, Jimmy Carter in 1980, folks who just got murked at the polls.

As I suggested yesterday, I do not think McCain has a chance, but I do think the republican party has a great chance coming out of this election. Obama is intent on not making similar mistakes to Dubya and WJC, and therefore will try his hand at a bi-partisan government. If that plays out, the Republicans are likely to be generously compensated, likely more than one would usually expect by a President coming in with a seemingly strong mandate as Obama. I say seemingly strong, because as the polls suggest, this election will be a contest, and while most people are ideologically behind Obama, there is such a strong lack of faith in politicians these days, that Obama's advisers know that the victor in this election can not enter office beating his chest.

Finally, McCain is a sacrificial lamb in this election. Republicans are willing to take the L with him because he does not represent their future--a message that has been slow in getting to McCain's camp. McCain has spent more time trying to convince people that he's a "true conservative" that he neglected to realize that this election is a golden opportunity to 1) revolutionize the meaning of conservatism in American Politics 2) resuscitate the Republican brand and remind voters that republicanism is not simply a synonym for conservatism. Ever since Ross Perot, republicans have been losing their mavericks in a manner that although it is comparable to how democrats are losing voters to the green party, republicans have not developed a long term strategy for winning any of these voters back. Let's just put it this way, I've seen more Ron Paul offices in Brooklyn than I have McCain offices. McCain and his ilk fail to realize that christian fundamentalists are not the only radical group in the republican party and until they do so they will continue losing elections that they do not steal.