OK, FOR MEMBERS OF THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA...I WILL
W R I T E--S L O W L Y--T H I S--T I M E--SO YOU CAN FOLLOW ME. (and you too Dick Morris, Frank Luntz, Mark McKinnon...et al).
Republicans do NOT win when they "go towerds the middle" in elections. Quite the contrary. They win big when the IDEOLOGICAL CHASM between them and the Democrats is huge....and this is only guaranteed by the GOP going where they belong...to the right! Sometimes the Democrats make it easy by going waaay left themselves...because it is their party that must go "to the center" to win.
This is demonstrated by history:
1968: Nixon given decent sized chasm by liberal Hubert H. Humphrey and wins close race.
1972: Nixon's ideological gap even larger against ultra liberal George McGovern.
1976: Moderate Gerald Ford runs disasterous race against a somewhat moderate campaign by liberal Jimmy Carter.
1980: With Ronald Reagan staying to the right, he routs Carter.
1984: Reagan "stays the course" on the right and has historic landslide over Mondale.
1988: Bush 41 runs as Reagan heir and routs ultra liberal Dukakis.
1992: Bush 41 exposed as moderate gets embarassed by moderate campaign by Clinton and water further muddied by Perot.
1994: Contract with America wins huge conservative win for GOP in congress.
1996: Dole Kemp run horrible moderate campaign and get routed by Lewinsky weakened Clinton.
1998: most conservative campaign in nation is Jesse Ventura in Minnesota (he didn't govern that way, but that's how he campaigned.)
2000: Bush 43 runs moderate campaign but squeaks by far left Gore. With Lieberman on ticket, Gore was able to narrow the ideological divide.
2002: Paul Wellstone Memorial exposes Dems as liberals, and this helps GOP in mid terms.
2004: Bush 43 still too moderate, but Kerry Edwards offer way left alternative and GOP wins.
2006: No clear conservative message leads to GOP disaster.
Conservatism works....everytime it's tried.....