Yes, indeed. Bush has lost a lot of leadership power with this defeat, and is now too much of a lame duck to be paid too much attention to. (The best thing he can do for the country is win the iraq war and enforce existing immigration laws). I think that the GOP has a golden opportunity to win with the conservative position — if we can get rid of Martinez as RNC head.
you are right, I think accept on one thing. The Iraq war is a loser. We cannot win it in 1/2 years. I would hasten to say we already won it. As the situation in Iraq is about as stable as it can get and Saddam is gone and so is his WMD program. We should declare a win and get out. What we need now is a president of some vision and leadership. Someone who see’s beyond the next election and can make structural changes particularly in the media. If the lib’s are bound and determined to take down then we should be bound and determined to take down the networks. The GOP should have the vision to put pressure on some of its money bags to support and create a couple more Rupert Murdoch’s. We need also to redefine what makes a conservative. The So cals are a good healthy strand. But, there needs to be other strands as well. It is becoming to much said that people are fiscal Conservatives and social moderates or even liberals. Most people are against repealing Roe Vs Wade and are not impressed by the religious right agendas. The religious right has been smeared and demonized beyond belief by the media. If we define social conservative as anti political correction and anti-illegal immigration and anti affirmative action then most people are social conservatives again. sometimes it is just changing the terrain that works.