Republicans have been winning by default. Their supposed majority mandate they now enjoy in Congress came from the votes of something like 16% of registered voters. I looks like a problem of education and apathy. Republicans have a lot of very motivated single issue voters. I vote Democratic despite my better judgement, because I really don't like Republicans. That's it. I don't see any vision, any new ideas coming from the Democrats; they just happen to be a better version of the status quo than the GOP. I'm not sold on Warren, because I just don't know what her other qualifications are (obviously the president has a lot of other things to contend with besides financial reform). Still, I'd probably vote for her were she to run.

Anyway, I think the "morality" wing of the GOP is in its death throes. They can only exploit it for so long as people start to wake up to the 21st century way of thinking. As of now, my ideal candidate would be someone who has a three pronged platform that includes tax reform, ending the war on terror, and environmental protection/restoration. To me, those are the three 21st century problems that need 21st century solutions. I think we're still a decade or so off from meeting this challenge.