The Tea Party is precisely what destroyed the party. They not only are kicking out old school Republicans who actually had decent things to say, they are kicking out reason for a social agenda that reeks of the 1950s.
Why would anyone vote for people who think women should be forced Trans-Vaginal Probes so they can see their fetus after they were raped?
The Tea Party are mental cowards and deserve to lose every single time.
Without the Tea Party, the GOP doesn't win the House in 2010.
Romney will simply be viewed, I think, as the John Kerry of the GOP: The guy the base didn't really want but the establishment thought was the most "presidential".
Go back 8 years. When Bush got re-elected, did the Dems compromise or go to the center? NOPE!!
They went far-left, blocking Bush at every turn and really chop-blocking him, when they took Congress.
The Tea Party will do the same, only to the right. Their argument will be the GOP ran another mushy moderate; he got the lips slapped off his face; we got creamed; and we're stuck with Obama for another four years.
SO......TO HELL WITH COMPROMISE AND REACHING ACROSS THE AISLE!!! We need true conservatives.
Chris Hayes of MSNBC made the point, after Maddow commented about the GOP losing two Senate seats, that the messages keep getting mixed, because of the electorate that shows up on general election years vs. off-election years (or midterms).
Basically, in general election years, they're "less white and more liberal"; in off-years, they're more white and more conservative.