Where Now for the Republicans?

Mark McClelland of the University of Birmingham offers this analysis and challenging questions:

Not a great night to be a conservative...

At least the Senate races weren't a complete disaster. Was surprised to see Coleman just about hang on in Minnesota (although there is bound to be a recount), McConnell won in Kentucky, and it looks like somehow the disgraced Stevens is going to win in Alaska. Chambliss won in Georgia but looks like he may be a few votes short though of avoiding a run-off. And Smith is 15,000 ahead in Oregon with 75% of precincts reporting. Given Obama's convincing victory, I suspect the Dems will have hoped for more victories on Obama's coattails. They have only really picked off the low lying fruit. Some good filibustering lies ahead. Small crumbs of comfort given the wider picture, but c'est la vie...

I'm interested in your thoughts on the McCain campaign. Given Bush's approval numbers and economic meltdown, was this the best result McCain could have hoped for? If you think he could have done better, do you think he should have completely avoided any negative campaigning and run positively as a centrist, or would McCain have been better served. as John Bolton suggested on the Beeb last night, by being far less restrained, taking the gloves off and systematically hammering Obama on his liberal record for the whole campaign, not leaving it until the last 10 days to do so. My feeling is that ultimately the campaign lacked cohesion, and would have been more successful (though still may not have won!) if he had focused on just one of these strategies, instead of trying to do both (badly) and falling between the two stools.

In contrast to shrewd reflection, George Will in the Washington Post goes in for a fatuous rallying of the troops:

Conservatives should note what their current condition demonstrates: Opinion is shiftable sand. It can be shifted, as Goldwater understood, by ideas, and by the other party overreaching, which the heavily Democratic Congress elected in 1964 promptly did.

Sorry to rain on your attempt to spark Republican fire, George, but you want to consider that the 1968 Presidential election was not won primarily by arch-conservative ideas or by the Great Society effort of 1964-68, but by the disaster of Vietnam.

By coincidence, I've just been debating the "Where Now?" question on BBC Radio Scotland with Robert McGeehan of Chatham House and Republicans Abroad. We hope to post a clip later.