Star One Smart Blog's

I can see it all over the blogospere, the reeling Republicans peering into their navels wondering what and why and how this happened. How could the party of the Right be so wrong?

I found the best answer overseas....

Probably the best one-paragraph summary, and prophecy, that I've read on the post-election.

"It will take time for this to sink in among conservative Republicans. This election has been a major blow to their self-image and world-view. Like the Thatcherites, they got used to assuming that they were always right and would always be victorious. On Tuesday the voters told them they were wrong. It has taken many false starts for the Conservative party to get back in the game in Britain. Something similar could happen to the suddenly weakened Republicans. But there's nothing they like more than a fight."

Republicans will first have to address the errors made in operations and tactics of the Wars, in Iraq, and Afghanistan.

"It was the crash heard round the world. It came in the form of a nationwide protest against the Iraq war and Bush's presidency. A new survey of actual voters, conducted since election day by Bill Clinton's former pollster, Stan Greenberg, confirms that Iraq was by far the most important issue that influenced Americans' votes. The divide among those for whom Iraq was the most important issue went 3:1 in favour of the Democrats. That, in a nutshell, explains what happened."

Then we have to address the philosophy of Conservatism; or, where it was misplaced. The housecleaning has to be swift. Some facts are now painfully obvious: Rummy's bus ticket out of town was punched three weeks too late. Bush is not a conservative. Martin Kettle is wrong when he says Bush is a Conservative, at least in the Reagan mold...

"What happened this week was not complex. It was the crash of the conservative political project begun by Newt Gingrich in 1994 and crystallised under George Bush since 2000."

No, Martin, it was the steady departure from Reagan Conservatism. The 'Neo Conservative' movement is a failure, and should be...sorry, shitcanned.

Bush fought the war in Iraq for the right reasons, but didn't use enough force to finish...just like his dad, he stopped short of enough effort to knock out the opposition. Given all of the sentiment against the warn and Republicans, Bush is a liability. Even Rush Limbaugh is tired of 'carrying his water'. This Republican ship won't stop sinking until George Bush is mending fences in Texas.

And the real winners aren't the Democrats, but the terrorists: Islamic Facists or 'Freedom Fighters', with 'Vendetta' already planned for their next six generations. Terrorists will get a reprieve, time they need to strengthen and rearm, and multiply. Worst case, they will get Iraq, after we cut and run/pull out, with the possibility of Iraqi Oil.

The Conservatives will fight, but first bloodletting should be inside the Republican party. This will take at least two years, for obvious reasons. It may take up to six years: the 2008 Presidential Election loss, then 4 more years of Democrat control of the Government, before the pendulum starts to swing back.

Let's just hope that we don't give the enemy all the time he needs to bring it back over here...