REPUBLICANS: "My God, what (an effing) mess---A loss is what the GOP's political class NOW expects."

[Spike89]

58. I can agree to a point but big blowouts aren't likely

The days when a significant portion of the electorate was authentically willing to consider the best candidate regardless of party are gone. Even most independents tend to be polarized and essentially locked into one party or the other based on their personal wedge issues. Even when the republicans run a comically inept campaign (McCain) with the worst VP candidate ever, they still got votes in the high 40s. The reality is that the repubs could run a turnip and a can of tuna and still poll 45+% (to be fair, we could do the same and get nearly that much).
It isn't just that anyone really wants a turnip/tuna ticket, just that we're unwilling to let the other side win. There are ample "dealbreaker" issues on both sides to make it virtually impossible for most people to consider a candidate from the other party.
The point here is that the margin for victory, even running against the dispirited clowns the GOP is fielding this cycle, is incredibly small and we can expect them to campaign mostly to get the electorate excited to vote against Obama (rather than for $Romney).