Ramesh – I read that piece to and have been meaning to comment on it. I am open to a good victory-would-be-bad-for-conservatives argument. Alas, Ferguson’s wasn’t very good. Though it wasn’t even really about conservatives so much as the GOP. You’ve covered most of the points. But one thing that really surprised me was that there was no concession to the fact that the Bush-is-Major analogy was made already — about Poppa Bush. He was the less-than-charismatic president who was carrying the baton for the epochal conservative who came before (i.e. Reagan and Thatcher). The argument was made at the time that a Bush defeat would be good for Republicans because it would cause a re-evaluation and reorganization effort. Whether the analysis was spot-on or not, Republicans did undergo that process. They took the House, Senate and countless state offices. And, in 2000, a Republican won. It just struck me as very odd that either none of this occurred to Ferguson or he didn’t think it was worth addressing.