Jerry: No, I'm not gonna tell her about your shrinkage. Besides, I think women know about shrinkage.
George: How do women know about shrinkage? (They see Elaine walking down the hall) Elaine! Get! (She enters) Do women know about shrinkage?
Elaine: What do you mean, like laundry?
George: No.
Jerry: Like when a man goes swimming... afterwards...
Elaine: It shrinks?
Jerry: Like a frightened turtle!
Elaine: Why does it shrink?
George: It just does.
Elaine: I don't know how you guys walk around with those things.

Recent polls show  that 21% of U.S. voters identify with the Republican Party, the lowest number since 1985. 

...the GOP is becoming an increasingly monochromatic party, dominated by the most conservative voters and regions. This process enormously accelerated under Bush and , who built their governing strategy on energizing the Republican base rather than on expanding it by courting swing voters.  (Coalition Or Club?)

A bigger problem has arisen, President Barack Obama.  With a job approval rating at 65% and a likability rating of 81% he is more then a fordable opponent.

How fordable? If Barack Obama was a pro basketball player he would be averaging 50 points a game; baseball, he'd be on track to hit 80 home runs, win 30 games, he is that good.

You can't fault the Republicans for not trying to reinvent themselves, today, in a pizzeria, in a mall in Arlington Virginia three prominent Republicans, Eric Cantor, Mitt Romney, and Jeb Bush kicked off a campaign reshape their party's image (for the 103rd time in a 103 days). 

Lead off batter was Cantor, he came with the same old bluster:

"Certainly our party has taken its licks the last few cycles, but that's why we're here," House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said Saturday. "The reality is, the prescriptions coming out of Washington right now are not reflective of the mainstream of this country."

One out.  The second batter was Jeb Bush, his candor was refreshing:

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said it's time for Republicans "to listen a little bit, learn a little bit." He advised Republicans to work on the party's message and "not be so nostalgic."

"I would say you can't beat something with nothing. The other side has something. I don't like it, but they have it," said Bush, who praised President Obama's tactical approach to politics and commended his 2008 campaign as "forward-looking."

Bunt single.  It's up to Mitt to bring him home.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney compared the GOP to Americans fighting the British during the Revolutionary War. "We are the party of the revolutionaries, they [Democrats] are the party of the monarchists," he told the overwhelmingly Republican crowd, saying the Republicans needed to "once again lead the American Revolution."

Romney blamed Washington for setting in motion policies that led to the collapse of the housing market, and painted his party's minority status as a boon.

 "We have an advantage," said the former Republican presidential candidate. "When a party has the White House, communication comes [from the] top down, and there's a strategy that everyone has to march behind." Instead, he said, the GOP had the option of drawing its strategy from the grassroots.

"We don't have to come up with all the answers today. Thank goodness, we have a little time," he said. "Certainly by 2010, we better."

The sharp crack of the bat, Romney hits a hard liner ... right at the first baseman.  He easily doubles up Bush.  Three outs.  Inning over.

The biggest tell of the day was in the mall parking lot, even with the heavily Republican crowd inside, it was dotted with Obama bumper stickers. And, there were protesters, conservatives brandishing signs criticizing the leaders inside as "RINOs," Republicans in Name Only.  To what they believe, they had a point, inside the pizzeria there was no mention of abortion, same-sex marriage, or any of myriad social conservatives hot-button, hot blooded, rage inspiring issues.

Republican strategist, Bill Bennett, summed it up best on CNN.

"[Obama's] a huge political figure. I don't agree with him, but the guy blocks the sun. He won the election. He commands everything in sight.  (CNN - Republicans kick off campaign to shine party image)

The more the GOP shrinks the more powerful their base becomes.  The lunatics are truly running the asylum.  It's how they lost Specter, and it is how they will lose elections, and party members for a long time to come.   Gotta' love em'

I felt puny and absurd, a ludicrous midget. Easy enough to talk of soul and spirit and existential worth, but not when you're three feet tall. I loathed myself, our home, the caricature my life with Lou had become. I had to get out. I had to get away. - The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)