Still, the implication of Mr Steele’s promise seemed to be that the party would stop being distracted with minor Democratic politicians and more directly criticise Barack Obama’s policies.
Jonathan Chait raises the right question: What if those policies succeed? What if Mr Obama presides over the sort of recovery that Ronald Reagan presided over, or FDR presided over? There really isn’t any Republican plan for that, because to believe that is to doubt decades of conservative orthodoxy.
Bottom line - if the economy looks better by 2012, Obama is re-elected. And political realignment - now still tenuous and temporary - solidifies.
