For the Rats to survive, they need someone from way outside the system, and not to the left of it, that can pull the party away from the Kerrys, Deans, Clintons and Pelosis. I don't see it happening.
I agree. But also, even in 1976, the Ford barely lost to Carter, even with the pall of Watergate. Had he won, then been saddled with the recession (which he surely would have, as Ford had no imagination), a more dynamic Dem than Carter would have come out---maybe a Nunn-type or a pre-scandal Gary Hart. It's conceivable that Reagan would never have been elected had (nor would any Republican in 1980) if Ford had won in 1976.