"By almost any measure, American conservatives should be thoroughly depressed," John O'Sullivan wrote Saturday in his Globe essay Republicans, take heart!
"The Republican Party they support has just lost control of the White House, the U.S. Senate, and the House of Representatives.
"If the Supreme Court follows the election returns, as it does when Democrats win, they are about to lose an institution they never really managed to control.
"And the Washington punditocracy has declared almost unanimously that they are just starting a long march through the wilderness of opposition . . . "
John O'Sullivan
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That's way too facile, Mr. O'Sullivan argued.
"Conservatives can relax for the moment," he wrote. "Their own long national discomfort with Bush and McCain is now over. They can look forward to happier days . . .
"The electoral statistics give them some cause for hope. Obama won 52 per cent of the popular vote to McCain's 46 per cent — well short of a landslide. McCain's 46 per cent percentage is much better than the 41 per cent achieved by the similar candidacy of Senator Dole 12 years ago.
"And this clear but modest defeat for the Grand Old Party came after a series of political failures, in the middle of a financial crisis, in the face of unprecedented media bias, against an unusually attractive and polished Democrat, when all measures of public opinion showed a growing disquiet about the nation's direction, following an erratic campaign by a Republican who was heartily disliked by his party's conservative base.
"It might have been very much worse."
Whether you agree or not, it's a provocative argument. That's why we at globeandmail.com are pleased that Mr. O'Sullivan was online earlier today to take your questions on his essay, on the outlook for conservatism and on the U.S. political scene.
Your questions and Mr. O'Sullivan's answers appear at the bottom of this page.
John O'Sullivan is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. He is also editor-at-large of National Review where he served as editor-in-chief for nine years.
He was editor of the foreign policy quarterly, the National Interest, from 2003 to 2005 and editor-in-chief of United Press International from 2000 to 2003.
