Can Republicans come back from their "thumpin'"?

Salam: I would love to see lots of talented Republicans get over themselves and run for offices that they think might be a little too modest for their ambitions. For example, there's going to be a gubernatorial race in Tennessee. I see no reason why Bill Frist, one of the really formidable, tremendously smart guys who powered the Republican rise in the '90s, should not run for that office to really prove his mettle if he wants to reenter the fray. I think that when you're looking at Sarah Palin, I think the thing that was most striking was how quickly she learned on the campaign trail. She became a much stronger candidate by the end than she was at the beginning. I think that a big part of her problem was that the issue mix in Alaska is highly idiosyncratic. It's different than the kind of issues that we're concerned about in the lower 48. I think that she had a tough time with the media, as we all know, but also, her political profile in the state was very different than what her political profile was in the country.

I think it's very easy to see why McCain chose her. She is extraordinarily charismatic and a lot smarter than people give her credit for. But if she were going to run for the Senate, if she were going to run for president in 2012, she'd have to develop a much stronger foreign-policy profile. There are quite a few Republican candidates; I think actually Republicans have a pretty strong bench for 2012. But I think it's safe to say that whoever is going to be the candidate is someone none of us anticipate right now.

Christie: I tend to agree with that. I think Gov. Palin has a remarkably bright future in national politics should she decide that she wants to embark upon that path, either being elected the United States senator from Alaska or seeking higher elected office in a number of years. But I agree with Reihan; she has to break beyond the regional politics that one would associate with being governor of the state of Alaska or a similarly situated state like Hawaii and have more of an elevation in her policies as they relate to international issues.

That being said, I think there are a number of remarkably bright candidates that we will have to choose from. So much attention is focused on the presidential election, but I'm looking at the congressional election in just two years from now. We have a number of smart people all across the country who I think would benefit by returning to the core principles that we referred to earlier in our discussion of the fiscal conservative, pro-family values that have often characterized one as a Republican. We need these folks to run for office now so then we can have the discussion later of who's going to trying to take the presidency. Let's look at the people who are going to run for the House and the Senate, who are those candidates, who are the people in the state legislatures who can take back control of some of the states where we've lost power. There's still a lot of work yet to be done. One last point: I think Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, embodies this model. Very smart, understands the needs not only of his constituents, but he is a doer rather than a talker. I mean, he spends a lot of his time, I was just down in Louisiana two weeks ago, and he is tackling the delivery system of healthcare, not from the ivory tower from way up above, but he is trying to implement innovative solutions from the ground up. So, these young, fresh hands-on executives will be the ones that lead us out of this winter of discontent that we're in now and back to majority status, but it might just take a while.

Castellanos: My guess is that a couple of months from now, Sarah Palin will give a speech, will draw a large crowd, will be very well received, and a lot of folks in the elite establishment will say, "Well, doesn't she know she's supposed to be a joke and not supposed to be that successful?" That will fuel another speech, which will lead to a more successful draw and a larger crowd, and a year from now, they will have rehabilitated Sarah Palin. I don't think McCain picked Sarah Palin because she was a pick for the base. I think John McCain picked John McCain in a skirt. She was an outsider and the maverick that he was trying to be in the campaign but could actually never make it work until he picked her. And then for the first time, really, the McCain campaign got a message which was, Washington's a mess, it's not going to fix itself, sometimes we, real regular American people, have to stand up and go change it and fix it so that we can get the country back on track. When she had a couple of bad interviews, when her lack of opportunity to gain the experience that a vice-presidential candidate needs was revealed on the campaign trail, it not only damaged her, but it damaged the only message that the McCain campaign had. Which was revving up not only the Republican base but adding the populist conservative element to it. If she can recapture that over the next year, she'll be a contender.

Salon: We're almost out of time, so let me close with one feet-to-the-fire question. If I gave you each a hundred dollars to place, and I'm not asking who you'd like to see be the 2012 nominee, but you'd have to predict right now, who are you going to lay your money on? Who is the 2012 Republican nominee for president?

Castellanos: Right now, how much money again?

Salon: A hundred bucks. It's not your money.

Castellanos: I always like to think it's my money if I'm betting. Right now, I'd say it's a tossup between Bobby Jindal, Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush.

Christie: Two out of three. I think it's Mitt Romney, Bobby Jindal and a person to be named later.

Salam: Mitt Romney has the money and also the Republican Party is a royalist party that always goes to the guy who just narrowly missed it the last time around. I think Mike Huckabee is going to run a tough race and I think that Mitt Romney is going to be the one who's going to out-organize -- that's what I see as a plausible outcome. It's not the outcome I'd like to see, by the way. But yeah, that's what I see happening.

Salon: I'd like to thank our three guests, Alex Castellanos, Ron Christie and Reihan Salam, for participating.