Not only that, but they had better make the case that the leftwing Democrat likely to be nominated represents the failed status quo: the bureaucracies that are failing, the social policies that are failing, the high tax policies that are failing and the weakness around the world that has failed so badly in protecting the U.S. [bold mine-DL] ~Newt Gingrich

This would be quite a feat, since the GOP controlled both the legislative and executive branches for the past six years.  Any failures of bureaucracy, social policy and tax policy and any U.S. weaknesses around the world would be primarily the responsibility of the GOP.  That doesn’t mean that the Democrats would necessarily have any solutions, either, and they could still theoretically be even worse than these jokers have been.  Even so, it seems to me that the first step towards Republicans’ embracing their inner Sarkozy cannot be the standard reiteration of all the old criticisms of Democrats recycled from the ’90s.  That would mean that someone like Romney could not simply talk about “innovation and transformation,” but actually demonstrate some sort of innovative thinking, which his tired stump speeches berating European-style welfare states, Hillary Clinton and France do not show.