How does the GOP expect to win in 2012?

[muon2]

By winning at least 270 electoral votes, the same way that it's always done.

Naturally, and one starts by looking at the crossing point that could produce a tie. My scenario looks like this (states are scaled to match their votes in the EC).

[pbrower2a]

Simply put -by rousing their southern white base to return the White House back to white men, preventing any significant attempts by the Obama administration in further spurring the economy (and -by a breathtaking act of chutzpah- blaming him for the resulting slow job growth), and further depressing minority youth turnout by voting restrictions and other shenanigans reminiscent of Jim Crow (and marginalizing anyone who draws the comparisons).  

There is scarcely anything redeeming that I can say about the tea-bagged Republican Party to lighten my dark, embittered, and cynical view of it.  

LOLOL!  That is funny!  You should get a job as a standup comedian!  I mean, that's wiping my eyes funny!

(Seriously, have you ever noticed how Leftwingers are so often shocked by conservative victories because, as they themselves admit, "no one I know voted that way!")

Yes, I am familiar with the 'everybody I know voted for McGovern' effect. Have you ever noticed that it cuts both ways, and that the right often bitches about 'voter fraud' when certain folk turn out in greater-than-expected numbers?

First, no the "McGovern effect" doesn't "cut both ways".  One of the differences of the life experiences of liberals and conservatives in America is that if you are conservative, there is no way in Hell that you won't be informed -- over and over again -- what is "the liberal viewpoint" on every subject under the sun.  However, and think about college here, it isn't very difficult for a liberal to get through life without being exposed to an indepth critique of liberal shiboleths.

Wrong. We liberals know what the Hard Right stands for today and what the conservative side said 25 years ago -- and we know the difference. We know that the conservative side is changing, and much for the worse -- shriller, more rigid, more dogmatic, and less rational. If we fail to understand the conservative view it is because we cannot accept right-wing talking points (intended as the end of the discussion and assumed as the point from which all action must follow)   and assume the worst because all is decided.

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Maybe we don't understand why it is so necessary to transform America into a plutocracy and promote superstition because it allegedly better fosters morals.   

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Maybe it is because we aren't so duplicitous and dogmatic.