Has the Republican Party become too Conservative?

These kinds of questions always seem kind of silly. It's sort of like when people get into extremely intense, heated debates as to why the United States doesn't have a more popular soccer program compared to the European Union. But Colin Powell thinks it is true anyway, and blames that for Obama winning. But couldn't you just as easily mark up the Republican loss to Ockham Razor kinds of explanations? Like, oh I don't know, the worst recession in several decades which all but obliterated John McCain's chances. The recessionary explanation would explain why even as far back as January, prediction markets were estimating a democratic win (even before the primaries of either party were finished) by over 60%. The news in financial markets was already very, very bad as early as the mid-spring of 2007, so it seems like such an easy thing to say that the incumbent party is facing an extreme disadvantage in such a climate. Trying to explain the failure in anything else seems to me, fwiw, weak. Having said that, Colin Powell is a stud, so take what I say with a grain of salt.