Is Palin causing a schism in the GOP?

[CrackerBarrel]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Yeah, I don't think this run has helped Palin long term really and that's why I find the 2012 talk for her so peculiar. I'd like to see her again, but now that she's debuted nationally, it's going to be hard to pull off. I don't think she could win a presidential nomination outright.

My skepticism about Romney having been a "winning candidate" isn't about my having a problem with Romney or believing that McCain was a better candidate; I just don't think the Obama momentum was really stoppable. My doubt isn't really about lack of merit.

ETA: Maybe my liking Palin is coloring my judgment, but as popular as Obama has been, McCain's closing the gap as much as he has is really less of a failure that it really seems. I know it's a loss and the party obviously needs to regroup, mainly because of how poorly it governed when it had the chance. The Presidential loss is as good a catalyst as any to rediscover core principles, but McCain/Palin isn't in Mondale sized loss territory (or even Dukakis sized loss), I don't think, and yet, the Democratic party survived and gave us eight years of Clinton. Sorry for how rambling this got. My point in this last paragraph is just that while this sucks and I hope the GOP cleans itself up, I don't think the GOP is going the way of the Whigs or anything.

Well I think it will also give us the political benefit of having the country/economy get worse and the Democrats not having anyone to blame it on (what with controlling Congress and the White House). That gives the Republican party - if they can find an identity and decent candidates - a chance to come sweeping in and clean house in the next elections.