Frank Luntz writes how the GOP can win - maybe-  in 2008:

“ALL THE BIG questions for 2008 are on the Democratic side: Can Hillary Clinton show her humanity? Does Obama have enough experience? Will Edwards find a cheaper barber?

But there is one big question that has hardly been asked at all, mostly because it threatens to upset the narrative of the best election in decades: Do Republicans have any chance whatsoever of winning the White House in 2008? Given the extraordinary unpopularity of the Bush administration, isn’t the Democratic candidate, whoever he or she ultimately is, going to be a shoo-in?

The simple answer is that it doesn’t look good for the Republicans. A GOP victory is not absolutely out of the question, of course, but getting there would take a forward-looking agenda, unparalleled message discipline, a strict focus on the millions of independent voters, an innovative candidate and campaign and a lot of luck.

In other words, don’t bet on it.”

Ok, so he’s not sold on the idea. ¬† Admittedly things look bleak:

“The electorate is the most pessimistic in a generation. Just 19% of Americans believe that the country is headed in the right direction, while 75% believe that things are “off on the wrong track,” according to a “CBS News” national survey conducted last month. Most of the country is in a nasty, irritable mood, and incumbent parties are historically tossed out of power when expectations turn so ugly.

The president’s approval ratings are barely hovering in the upper 20s, an all-time low, having plummeted since his reelection less than three years ago. In the last 50 years, only Richard Nixon had a lower approval score. And not since Harry Truman in 1948 has a political party maintained the White House with an incumbent so personally unpopular.

When asked what party they will vote for in the 2008 presidential election ‚Äî a “generic ballot” question that does not include any candidate names ‚Äî voters choose the Democrats by a sizable 18 percentage points, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey. We haven’t seen such a one-party advantage since the Watergate era.

In the last 50 years, the political party in power has lost control of the White House six times (out of 12 elections). In none of those cases — zero — have the numbers been as bad for the incumbent party as they are today. For a Republican nominee to win in 2008, he would need an upset even greater than the one that propelled Truman back into office in 1948.

Ugh……is there any hope Frank?

“Still, a Republican victory is not impossible. Not yet. One promising indicator is the fact that Congress is at its lowest approval point in a generation ‚Äî even lower than in 1994, when Republicans seized the majority in the House after 40 years of Democratic control.

The Democrats blew into Washington in 2006 as a breath of fresh air in response to Republican scandal, Republican budget mismanagement and a Republican war. But in recent weeks, that freshness has turned stale. Despite majorities in both houses, Congress is seen as having failed to set tough ethics standards, failed to stop wasteful spending and failed to fix immigration.

And those failures offer a glimmer of hope for the GOP.”

Well I’m not as resigned to giving up the White House the Clintons again.¬† First, as tired as the American public are of “politics as usual”, I don’t think they want or desire another four years of Raider Bill chasing young girls down the halls of the White House. ¬† Another factor is that poll after poll show us that Hillary¬† - who IS the Democrat nominee - wouldn’t be exactly a shew in for the job.

Don’t forget - as I’ve been telling you - that GOP organizations will be using next Summer to launch one attack after another. ¬† They have been storing and have stored up funds and data to put just enough doubt - if there isn’t enough already - into American’s minds about Mrs Clinton.

Make no mistake, Hillary has a hugh amount of unclaimed - and unreported - baggage out there, and besides the Right, the Progressive Left - who has never been a fan of the Clintons - is gearing up to throw mud into her run.
As Franky rightly says, all the questions ARE on the Democrat side.¬† Remember that just six months into their “reign” in congress they’ve dove to historic lows in approval ratings.¬† That has NEVER happened in such a short period of time and very telling of just how much “voter remorse” there is out there.¬† It’s as if they gave the Democrats the chance they asked for and they blew it - big time.¬† Instead of fixing the issues important to Americans they’ve decided to waste taxpayer money on witch hunt investigations and call for America’s surrender in the War on Terror (Yes, we are still in a war against terror).

All in all it’s extremely early to predict, but I’m predicting that Republicans keep the White House and not only that they regain the Senate as well.