It feels like morning in July.

It's going to be a very long day. The Republican party needs to rebuild the brand, making the most of the current retreat to build its strength back up and get ready for our next moment of opportunity. We're going to have to be smart about it.

Knives out for Obama is not going to work, not for awhile. The fact is, Obama doesn't need us. He's got the votes, the House and Senate, and the "mandate." For right now, let's let him have it. We believe in conservative principles because we know that's what leads to the best results for Americans. Let's let America see the full effect of the policies of the left now that the Obama/Reid/Pelosi Democrats don't have the political cover of "ooh the nasty Republicans wouldn't let us HELP you." It will be easier to take power from the Dems if we let them self-destruct.

We know so little about Obama, but there's one thing we know for a fact: Obama wants to be popular, but he'll always take the path of least resistance. Obama wants us right now, to prove his bipartisan unity credentials, but he doesn't need us. If we send the message that he cannot win us over, he will not try. We won't help ourselves by undermining what little power over public opinion we may still have. And ultimately, being seen as not trying to tear him down will add to our credibility and hasten the day when power will shift back to us.

In shaping the new party, we need to get past ideology and back to values. Ideology is too flimsy a tentpole for the big one we need. We can't all agree on the best way to achieve a good, safe, prosperous country, but we need to make sure that American knows that those are our goals. We don't believe in, for example, free trade or free markets for their own sakes, we believe in them because as a practical matter, these policies work to actually help people. America doubts our motives.

We need better candidates. Drumming the non-ideologically "pure" out of the party isn't going to help us. We're better off with Peggy Noonan with us than against us. Intra-party wars aren't going to help. I don't want to see the hinted-at Romney vs. Palin bloodbath. Let's not let the Democrats win this war through attrition.

Finally, we need to build a better grassroots, with the aim of getting our message out no matter what the media does. The MSM knows its got egg on its face for its campaign coverage, and it's going to try to regain credibility by picking at its newly annointed. There are those on the left who believe that the media is biased against them, and the media's newfound "integrity" is going to add fuel to that fire. We need to build a culture that marginalizes and dissipates the power of the old media. Turning off the TV seems like a good place to start. Any kind of information monopoly needs to be busted. The more channels of information everyone has, the better it is for us because our message is better.

I'm relieved that the election is over. We know where we stand. We don't need to lose anymore soliders fighting this one. We lost. All of our resources need to be put into making ourselves better, because America is going to need us, and probably sooner than it thinks.