"Doofus"

Paul Krugman has posted an almost kindly piece this morning -- "Sympathy for the Doofus" -- in which he effectively lays out the case that the right has had its day.

Yes, he’s a pretty bad candidate — but the core problem is with his party, not with him.

What, after all, does Romney have to run on? True, he hasn’t offered specifics on his economic policies — but that’s because he can’t. The party base demands tax cuts, but also demands that he pose as a deficit hawk; he can’t do both in any coherent fashion without savaging Medicare and Social Security, yet he’s actually trying to run on the claim that Obama is the threat to Medicare. On fiscal matters, doubletalk and obfuscation are his only options.

And no, Paul Ryan didn’t show that it can be done differently. His plan was, as I’ve documented many times, a fraud. ...Economics and Politics

This doesn't mean the Republicans could pull out some kind of win.  But  "the long-term fundamentals are not good for Republicans."  Short term, we hope, as well -- or we may never see a "long term."