The GOP seems to have lost its rudder.  The bad news has come from Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi — a string of unexpected Republican defeats in congressional elections that have prompted GOP leaders to say, with candor unusual in politics, that the party is facing an outright catastrophe this November.

Increasingly, top Republicans are calling on their party to reinvent itself or risk driving away more voters and donors. The GOP image is so stale, said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), in a memo to colleagues last week, that “if we were a dog food, they would take us off the shelf” because nobody is buying it.
McCain’s approach — tough on taxes, but receptive to immigrants and committed to easing global warming — could help paint the GOP in new colors, more attractive to independent voters, Latinos and women. Some GOP leaders now say that by embracing McCain and his policy platform, Republicans would instantly “rebrand” and reinvigorate their party.

But with McCain, the GOP will move to more fiscal policies and try to distant themselves from the social conservatism of Bush.  The three races that they lost recently has shown that the American people are ready for some change and if the Party does not respond, then it will be a shoo in for the Democrats in November.

But the question is:  Can the GOP be reinvented in time to get the message to the voters?