Sometimes small ball is the way to go. I’d love to see the GOP in sackcloth denouncing neocon interventionism. I’d love to see Kristol, Krauthammer, Perle, Gaffney, Cheney, Wolfowitze et. al, processing through the streets of DC like flagellantes, yelling “Mea Culpa! Mea Maxima Culpa!” Hannity and Limbaugh could make appearances in hairshirts. Lord knows it would be a beautiful sight.

But, we know this isn’t going to happen, so the best tact to take for the next few years until the reality dawns is to stick with good negative criticisms of the ruling party’s package. There wont’ be any turnover in power soon, but it’ll bide time, allowing the party to put some emotional distance between itself and its huge boners of the past eight years, so it can start reevaluating its governing philosophy.

Not really. Are these these the things being pushed by Jim Webb and all the other democrats elected over the past 6 years. Some of them, like more regulation are widely supported by the public now.

I’d say that the biggest failure was one of communication
Every losing candidate and cause claims this. While it is always possible the dressing was the problem, more often than not it is the package itself.

And then to top it off, they found a candidate capable of inspiring a huge cult of personality.
This is more of a right wing invention. It certainly speaks of the relationship of many on the right with Sarah Palin. People that supported Obama generally did so because they supported what they believed he could accomplish, at least to the extent they had done so for any other candidate. Part of what is seen of Obama worship is the product of incredulity that anyone person could support his positions or think them superior to McCain.

Like the Democrats, they need some attractive, eloquent faces to front the organization
Are you seeing the same Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Howard Dean I’ve seen?

The problem with the “new ideas” mantra is that there aren’t that many fundamentally new ideas out there to be had as far as policy goes. Policy-wise, the Democrats are pushing the same stuff they always have: more abortion, more spending, more regulation, harsher anti-growth environmental policies, more thought policing, socialized medicine, more union power, etc, etc. What has primarily changed is just the way they’re mobilizing and presenting their same old message.

While spending was a huge failure over the past 8 years, I’d say that the biggest failure was one of communication. The Bush White House was nearly mute, seeing no need for PR at all. Meanwhile, the Democrats were mobilizing and building up an extensive communications structure. And then to top it off, they found a candidate capable of inspiring a huge cult of personality.

What the GOP primarily needs is new tactics, rather than new policies. Like the Democrats, they need some attractive, eloquent faces to front the organization, and they need to update their communications. They also need to find ways to disrupt the Democrats’ means of communication. In that they have a disadvantage, because liberals are far more enthusiastic about using government coercion to curtail the speech of opponents. But the GOP could find ways if they were smart. One example would be to campaign on tuition caps for universities receiving government money. It could be presented from a populist standpoint: “to help struggling families afford educations in an economic downturn” or something to that effect. But the real goal would be to starve and marginalize the universities.