The GOP is circling the wagons as candidates distance themselves from the president. The gallows humor about the downfall of the mighty Republican Party is making for some uncomfortable laughs at cocktail parties in Washington, where one lawmaker jokes that "there's talk about us going the way of the Whigs," the 19th century political party long extinct. Fundraising is down, candidate recruitment is down and voters are abandoning the social issues that swept Republicans into power.

Are the days of Lee Atwater, Karl Rove politics coming to an end? The politics of manipulation and "win at any cost" even if it means polarizing voters would be a time in our history I would gladly see resigned to the history books.