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Congressional candidates Don Cazayoux (D.-LA) and Travis Childers (D.-MS) could thus credibly present themselves to the voters as "conservatives" despite enjoying close ties to Barack Obama. Both won their states' special election. Republicans, on the other hand, who attempt to ride McCain's tenuous "coattails" severely undermine their reputations as conservatives.

This is an option that they simply cannot choose without reaping a severe backlash in the wake of every McCain gaffe and pander to the left. So stark is the contrast between the operation of the two parties that unless GOP candidates actually distance themselves from McCain (and few if any are willing to do so) they will risk being tainted by every past and present betrayal of conservatism by the Arizona Senator.

At this crucial time in the nation's course, an ambiguous and diluted platform from the Republican Party will serve no useful purpose, either for the party's sake, or that of the nation. Yet by the character of its presumptive leader John McCain, the GOP appears to be stumbling into just such a morass. Worst of all, as a result of the two recent losses, Republican Party leaders are actually being cowed into believing the flawed premise that their party's candidates were dispatched for being overly conservative.

Such a conclusion and reaction is altogether astounding, considering that in both Congressional elections, the Democrat opponents were avowed "conservatives," and clearly connected with the voters on that basis. Yet the signs that Republican Party bigwigs are now expressing their openness to the idea of shifting the party even further left (the very action that caused severe voter backlash in 2006, and the party's current unpopularity), are alarmingly numerous.

Just this past week, Republican Deputy Whip Eric Cantor suggested as much, claiming that McCain "is a demonstrated vote getter among independents." House Minority Leader John Boehner erroneously concluded that McCain "appeals to almost all Republicans," suggesting a possibility that the rest of the party may drift further from its conservative roots in order to better align itself with McCain's seeming appeal to the "middle."

In truth, neither of the recent races prove any such thing. Rather, they suggest that the American public, which was once inspired by the audacity of a truly conservative message, has since concluded that the GOP will never deliver on it. The prominence of John McCain and his message of acquiescence and accommodation of the left only proves that a fight to put Republicans in office will do little to further the conservative cause.

As was the case in 1992 when Bill Clinton took the White House with only forty three percent of the vote, the current political winds suggest nothing of a Democrat surge, so much as a total disillusionment with the "me too" wing of the Republican Party.

In an ironic twist, McCain himself may yet prove to be immune to this effect though he is the primary force motivating it. And this is not owing to any political prowess on his part, but only to the obvious radicalism of his likely Democrat opponent. Having now been revealed to the public for who he really is, no amount of political posturing and backtracking can detach Barack Obama from the far-left fringe of the Democrat Party.

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