So Republicans in Rhode Island, California, and Massachusetts should "go where the voters are"?
Please....
You seem to think that winning elections is about abandoning leadership and principles and taking up full-scale pandering. No thanks. As has always been the case, winning elections is about having a sound message and delivering it passionately with conviction. If the Republicans did that last month, I must have missed it....
This past election has been made out to be some kind of surprising upset when in fact Republican losses were actually MILD compared to the history of incumbent party losses in the 6th year of a two-term Presidency. Cycles happen. We actually got off easy.
When you consider that the war wasn't going particularly well (and Democrat "mainstream" newsrooms worked overtime to make it appear to be going even worse than it was) along with a few high profile Republican scandals (Cunningham, Foley, Weldon, DeLay, and a few more Abramoff acquaintances), plus the complete lack of any strong national message from the party as a whole, you had the perfect recipe for the election we had.
In retrospect, it is astounding that the GOP's election losses weren't a lot worse than they were. And James Carville said exactly that when he called for Dean's head right after the election.
So you can keep your "we need to be squishy moderates" prescription for GOP success.
It's a loser.
Regards,
LH
Republicans in Connecticut did.