GOP, this is your wake-up call

From Real Clear Politics:

In a major blow to national Republicans, a Mississippi congressional seat that once voted for President Bush by a twenty-five point margin elected a Democrat on Tuesday. Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Travis Childers beat out Republican candidate Greg Davis, the mayor of Southaven, by a 54%-46% margin, a spread that several Republican strategists on Capitol Hill characterized as a startling wake-up call for a party in dire straits.

Voters cast ballots for the fourth time in three months for the seat, vacated when Republican Roger Wicker was appointed to fill the remainder of Senator Trent Lott's term. After winning the primary and the runoff election, Childers came within 410 votes of winning the first round of the special election against Davis on April 22, beating the Republican by a 49%-46% margin.

Last night, Childers, a conservative Democrat, again outperformed Davis in many rural counties. Childers did better than in April in eighteen out of twenty four counties, while he underperformed in just two counties. Childers held steady in three of the remaining counties, while Winston County produced just ten votes. Most importantly, Childers held firm in Lee County, the district's largest and home to Tupelo, winning 58% of the vote, while improving his showing in DeSoto County, Davis's home field. Childers won 25% of the vote in DeSoto County, better than his anemic 17% showing in April.

The results came despite national Republican efforts aimed at winning the seat. Senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker, former Senator Trent Lott and Governor Haley Barbour campaigned hard for Davis. On Monday, perhaps as an unfortunate measure of how Republican the district really is, Vice President Dick Cheney held a rally for Davis. Closing the gap in DeSoto County, said Childers pollster John Anzalone, was crucial. "All we were looking to do was to cut the margins there," he said.

The loss has already shaken establishment Republicans in Washington. After losing special elections in Illinois and Louisiana, the House GOP conference already expects a bad year for their party. But those two districts voted for President Bush by eleven and nineteen points, respectively, not by a whopping twenty five points. "People are going to want change," said a top aide to a leading House Republican. "The excuses, that [Davis] didn't have the resources or that he wasn't from the right part of the district, that's just not going to hold up."

Given that it is conservative Democrats who are winning these elections it would seen that a large segment of the public has not given up on conservatism, they have simply lost faith in Republicans to carry the goals of conservatism forward.

This is bad news for the Republican party, but what can we expect? The fish rots from the head down and who have we made the head of our party? Not just a non-conservative but an anti-conservative. By selecting John McCain as its nominee the GOP has erected an neon sign so large that it can be read from the surface of the moon that it wants nothing more to do with conservatism.

Of course everything isn't coming up roses for the Jackass party either. A lot of these Democrats who are unseating Republicans are conservative Democrats. The Blue Dog Democrats who won House seats in 2006 have shown that they will not always march in lockstep with the ultra-left House leadership. They have to get reelected and they cannot do it by becoming moonbats.

What does this say about president Obama's chances of enacting his neo-Marxist agenda?