re: #571 Kenneth

Run somebody from the lunatic wing of the GOP and we might as well let Obama run unopposed. Elections are won in the middle, not at the margins. If the GOP leaves the middle to Obama in 2012, he will take it in a landslide.

The Republicans have lost the battle of framing the debate, and have allowed the Democrats to define them.

Part of the problem as I see it is the public perception of the Republican party. The Democrats have successfully painted the Republican party as simultaneously having two extreme wings. As it suits the needs of the Dems, they can point to either the social conservatives or the fiscal conservatives as being the boogeyman.