[VRM]

Mike,
I'll back you on this one. McCain looked to be a continuation of the last 8 years, and with an approval rating for Bush of around 22% running on coattails was not going to be a good idea.
The GOP has not been conservative for years. The GOP has been taken over by a bunch of religious zealots who think they can spend without taxing. The DNC has done a better job of living within their means the the GOP has of late. Palin got it right when she said:
"I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a 10 trillion dollar debt in a Republican administration? How have there been blunders with war strategy under a Republican administration? If we're talking change, we want to get far away from what it was that the present administration represented and that is to a great degree what the Republican Party at the time had been representing. So people desiring change I think went as far from the administration that is presently seated as they could. It's amazing that we did as well as we did."

The GOP screwed up big time, and has been doing so for a while. Time to figure out where they went wrong and fix it. Maybe in time for the next election, maybe not.
But I do have to say that you were one of the ones who defended a lot of the policies that got us where we are now - and that is not conservatism either. The GOP needs to go back to its roots - personally, I think Freddie would be a good place to start!