The only "excuses" for the 2008 losses are:
A) A significant percentage of the electorate that cast their ballot solely on the basis of one particular candidate's skin color. And,
B) A GOP candidate at the top of the ticket who generated no excitement among his own party by reflecting the "Let's go out and appeal to the moderates and liberals" attitude that I see here.
You are wrong. Palin was on the ticket. She generated plenty of excitement. The fact is there is not enough conservatives to elect a GOP president. We have to appeal to a broader base. As for color, there were some in my area that said straight out they would not vote for a black man so I don’t know about this.