2012?  Boy, I find it hard to imagine a Republican is going to be successful with that kind of stuff anytime in the next decade.  If McCain loses, I think the next Republican President will have to be a Eisenhower/Nixon moderate who backs away from all this legislated morality crap and focuses on fiscal responsibility.  Kind of like John McCain before he started taking all the bad advice.  If McCain loses I find it very hard to imagine Palin will get the nomination in four years.

I disagree.  The economy will be blamed and McCain will be viewed as too liberal.  I think Sarah Palin (and social conservatives like her) is the future of the party. As a republican I feel so distanced and disenfranchised by the party it could be coloring my view and prognostication.

I also agree with Jason that a successful Republican strategy for 2012 (and the mid-term elections in 2010) needs to focus on fiscal responsibility, smaller government, lower taxes and a strong national defense and not the "3G's" (God, Guns and Gays) of the social conservatives.

In other words, the party needs to get back to the types of issues that used to be core Republican values. Maybe a defeat next month will serve as a wake-up call, much as the Democrats got tired of seeing liberals like Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis get pummelled in the presidential races and nominated Bill Clinton, a moderate, in 1992.

(Of course, the Dems promptly forgot that strategy and nominated liberals each of the past three elections. But there's no doubt in my mind that Clinton was exactly the type of candidate the Democrats needed in order to win. This year, it may be the GOP's turn to rethink its approach.)

As a democrat I want a strong military, I want the best equiped, best trained and most cared for military. I just do not want their willingness to serve to be used in conflicts that are built on lies. I want lower taxes, we made too much to get the stimulus check and under Obama our taxes will go up, but I do think we live in an amazing country and I do not mind my taxes being used to make life better for those that aren't doing as well. I feel like when we lift people up, we all benefit. I want the arts supported because it enriches our lives.  I do have a problem with pork barrel spending and bridges to nowhere.  I think most republicans and democrats aren't that far apart, we all want a better life and the best America it can be.

We have to stand up to the fringe in both parties and say enough is enough. It's just the republicans turn to do it.

Geoff your story about your Pop was very touching.

Geoff your story about your Pop was very touching.

Thanks.  He was very dear to me.  I am proud to be his grandson.

I don't know about Palin in 2012 but watch for Mike Pence (R) of Indiana to make a run sometime in the future.  He was supposed to make an opening speech at the Republican convention but was bumped due to the storms (I think it was storms)

I think Palin's lost it for me.