A good election to lose

Michael Steinberger says a hefty defeat might be the best result for the Republicans

Political parties exist to fight elections, and with the presidential campaign now in its climatic weeks, Republicans are gamely battling to keep the White House. Barack Obama has opened a large, possibly insurmountable lead over John McCain, whose every gambit, not least his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate, has failed amid the relentlessly dire news about the economy. But it is not just McCain who is facing possible humiliation on 4 November; the entire Republican party, weighed down by George Bush and beset with profound internal divisions, may be headed for electoral armageddon. As bleak as the party’s immediate prospects are, the long-term picture looks even worse. Indeed, the theory that the faster they are dispatched to oblivion the sooner they might find their way back suggests that the most propitious outcome for the Republicans at this point would be a crushing, cathartic defeat.