The problem with the Northeast is that the voters aren't given the option of a Conservative candidate. They're offered liberal rodents and liberal RINOs and we wonder why the voters choose the real deal. As for it spreading, you're going on the results of one election, a serious mistake with long-term analysis. Saying Missouri is getting more 'Rat is hillarious. The state is now more GOP than at any point since Reconstruction. Just because a phony rodent managed to put one over on a Republican state doesn't mean that will always hold true. And as for Ohio, it was corrupt and statist RINOs that caused the complete meltdown. The 'Rats will overreach there and things will return to normalcy soon enough.
Not that I necessarily object to RINOs running in hyper-Democrat districts, fine and dandy, but we need to take a good hard look at the fact that the erosion in many states is either due to RINOs themselves or gutless Conservatives failing to do what needs to be done. That's one of the main reasons, besides the usual historical cycle, that we lost Congress.
I also don't recall nearly losing the '04 Presidential race, either, despite the '00 outcome. I'm not sure what you propose to do in that instance, either. Nominating a RINO won't win you the election or get a wider percent of the vote.
I live on long island. we just had a special election here for a state senate seat. the republican was a pro-lifer, a woman. The Dem was backed by Spitzer, and ran a barrage of ads against the republican linking her pro-life position to opposition to stem cell research. she lost. the votes were simply not there.
we won the 2004 presedential election via a 65K vote swing in Ohio. analysis of the 2004 Presidential race showed the one thing Rove did extremely well - he maximized the vote of social conservatives for Bush. So what does this tell us? It tells us that with a maximum effort amongst social conservatives - the best we did in a Presidential election was a one state electoral win where a 65K vote swing would have otherwise elected a liberal from the northeast.
I am willing to listen to anyone who has ideas on how we can do BETTER then we did in 2004, and with which candidate. Hispanics went 69/31 Dem in 2006, Generation Y is running 58/42 Dem. Those two trends alone, how are we going to make up for that in the 2008 presidential election? we are running out of untapped pools of white evangelicals and social conservatives, where are we going to go to get votes?
OK, maybe Missouri was an "aberration" as you say. how about Virginia? how about the migration trends of people moving to the south and west, and bringing their politics with them? how about the Democratic pickups in governorships? All aberrations?