Puleeze.
IMHO, FR is pretty good gauge of the mood of the base. In 2000, 2002, 2004, people united to fight the Dems and their MSM allies and were optimistic.
In 2006, and even 2005, you could see the division and negativity come in as the negative posts against Republicans, especially the Congressional party, just got worse. There were a lot of people in the "teach 'em a lesson" camp who thought losing would be a good strategy.
What I've seen so far this year is lots of pot shots at the other guy's candidates and lots of declarations about who someone won't vote for. It doesn't give me a lot of optimism about being unified enough to fight an election with an unpopular Republican in the White House.
And I'm not sure anyone "understands" the primary "process" for 2008. You do understand it's being radically overhauled? There really isn't going to be a "process" anymore - it's all going to be over in about a month.
You are acting as if the American public does not have a learning curve ahead of them before they punch the ballots. You also are ignoring the pull that grass-roots efforts have in an election. I am not willing to just throw in the towel today... we have many more months ahead of us.
You cannot even determine today who the Democratic nominee will be. Why do you think you should be able to determine who the Republican nominee will be?
Trying to gauge this far out how an election will be is insanity.
In the 2006 election, Limbaugh and even the President thought that the base was going to be there supporting like they always do. But, that didn’t happen. WHY? Because the power rests with the people who vote.
In the end, anything can happen. The last two presidential elections should remind us of that.