Just talked to a Republican strategist whose judgment I trust. He’s despairing about Republican prospects in the Fall. He thinks Republicans will lose “a minimum” of 25 seats in the House and “a minimum” of 5 seats in the Senate, and probably closer to 7. But he’s feeling better about the presidential race than a week ago because: 1) he thinks Steve Schmidt is going to make a big difference; 2) he hears that $80 million is going to be devoted to an anti-Obama 527; 3) in general, the financial disparity between McCain and Obama is not going to be as large as first feared. Although he thinks this could be shaping up like the 1980 race, and if people get comfortable with Obama the way they did with Reagan, it’s all over. But he likes the way the McCain people gave been driving Obama on flip-flops, toward the goal of making him appear too duplicitous and too immature to be trusted with the presidency. Fwiw…