Hold your nose or drown is what I say.
The difference in your analogy is that 8 years of Bush gave the left 1/2 of what they wanted. There NEVER was a conservative majority in the House and Senate with all the obstructionist RINOs. So Bush never had the ability to go hard right on things like Social Security. The left hated him because he shot down Gore and Kerry, but he governed from the center on everything except defense.
Obama will have a solid majority in both House and Senate. We are not talking about a leaky boat, we are talking about a hard left legislative gusher. Gay marriage, high taxes, welfare, out of control enviro-whacko bills, no domestic oil production, no nuclear power, no coal power, a hard left turn for the Supreme Court and lower courts, terrorist appeasement, I could go on forever.
People should hold their nose and prevent the RATs from over running our country, then raise H*E*L*L with McCain and the RINOs to keep them in line. The time to get rid of RINOs is the primaries. Doing so now is absolute suicide.
Or, as I say, better to eat half a loaf with McCain and live to fight another day, or die of starvation with Obama. After four years (probably more), Obama and the 'Rats are going to starve us out. There will be nothing left to build on. Those who think it will be like 1976 with "Carter gave us Reagan" and some conservative savior waiting in the wings in 2012 to rescue us are simply deluding themselves. The only one waiting in the wings in 2012 will be Obama and the 'Rats, and the sheeple will give them another term because they've voted themselves largess from the public treasury.