No Matter

Who Are We Kidding? These guys are irelevant until at least '14

There's this

Republican Favorable Ratings
Republican/ Net Favorable / # Polls

Laura Bush/+54%/3
Condoleezza Rice/+29%/1
John McCain*/+18%/4
Cindy McCain/+17%/6
Tim Pawlenty/+5%/1
Rudy Guiliani/+4%/2
Sarah Palin*/+2%/5
Mike Huckabee**/+1%/4
Bobby Jindal/+1%/2
Mitt Romney**/-11%/3
Mitch McConnell/-16%/2
Rush Limbaugh/-18%/4
Karl Rove***/-19%/2
John Boehner/-21%/2
Newt Gingrich***/-23%/2
Dick Cheney/-27%/5
George W. Bush*/-29%/6

* = Post-2008 election

** = Polling from January-February 2008

*** = Polling from early 2007

and this

Michael Steele isn't looking back, he swears:

The Republican Party has turned a corner, and as we move forward Republicans should take a lesson from Ronald Reagan. Again, we’re not looking back – if President Reagan were here today he would have no patience for Americans who looked backward. Ronald Reagan always believed Republicans should apply our conservative principles to current and future challenges facing America. For Reagan’s conservatism to take root in the next generation we must offer genuine solutions that are relevant to this age.

and this

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman] probably assumes that the GOP will spend the next few years banging rocks together in the wilderness, throwing moderates like Colin Powell out of the party, and trying to wind the clock back to the early 1980s while the rest of the country moves on. He probably assumes that he's already established himself as "a different kind of conservative," that the domestic policy fights he'll face as governor will be frustrating and possibly fruitless, and that the GOP will need a few more electoral thrashings before it is ready to buy what he's selling.

What's more, he probably assumes that, while the rest of the GOP tears itself apart in naval-gazing fights about the meaning of "true conservatism," he can go off and pad his resume with several years of experience managing America's largest (and increasingly, its most important) bilateral relationship, and that when he returns in, say, 2014, not only will the GOP primary voters not punish him, they'll welcome him as a practical, reform-minded leader, attuned to the problems of the 21st century, who puts the national interest above partisan politics -- that is, just the kind of guy to lead them to victory in 2016.

And this

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's (R) approval rating -- at about 33% or 34%, per recent polls -- aren't much different than they were when Gray Davis was governor.

And this