Vote for the same, get the same.
Look how many flocked to McCain after he won the primaries. [It still wasn’t enough for him to win, but it showed that party is more important to many than substance. McCain had an R after his name. That was enough for many to vote for him.]
So, what conservatives in the GOP leadership have influence with the party? Few, if any. Most are big-business/country-club republicans who have been ‘selling’ us down this river for a long time.
Is Palin the answer? Not if she cannot wrestle control away from the big-tent-ers.
Without a serious change to the right, the GOP is going to remain the minority party for a long time — and the leadership seems to not mind all that much at being in the minority.
And just because Obama is bumbling along at present does NOT mean he may not recover enough to salvage 2010 candidates and even pull out a 2nd term in 2012 for himself.
And you are making my point. A third party would not have won the WH. It would just have made the margin of victory wider for the zero. What has to change is the way we select candidates. Allowing 2 or three primaries at the beginning of the election year decide who our candidate should be is insane. That is why conservatives must take over the party. Change it into what it SHOULD be.