While it’s healthy to be cynical about party loyalism, government works better when both major parties have a pulse. And when it comes to presidential elections, the Republican Party should have called a priest shortly before Nov. 6, 2012.

The only ones who didn’t see this coming were the same ones who eschew the “mainstream media” and prefer the snugness of their information cocoons where talk radio host and bloggers whisper sweet deficit reduction in their ears.

That isn’t to say that the GOP is an abject failure or doesn’t have plenty of valid points. They control Congress and dominate the political landscape on a state-by-state basis with 30 Republican governors. To say all is lost is misstating the facts.