With the Democrats controlling both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, there are those among the Conservative ranks contemplating how best to take maximum advantage of their newfound time in the political wilderness. Recruiting foot soldiers, grooming the next generation of leaders, raising money and engaging in a robust and often painfully honest bit of soul-searching all rank high on the list of priorities.

Crucial among those pressing issues is the debate of the intellectual-ideological foundation on which the next Conservative revival will be built.

What lies at the dogmatic heart of the Conservative movement? What principals are inviolable? What is considered heresy? Are pragmatics apostates to be excommunicated?

Will Conservatives define themselves by their principals and what they stand for? Or will they take the path of least effort and be defined by what they oppose as their friends acro

ss the aisle have done as of late?

Contrary to conventional wisdom, there are those within the Conservative intelligentsia that believe there is fertile ground to be cultivated in an Obama presidency.

With the Conservative camp having been divided since the debacle of the 2006 mid-term election along doctrinaire lines regarding the prioritization of moral, fiscal or national security issues, there are many that believe an Obama presidency may be the catalyst that finally unites the disjointed partisans.

Students of history among the faithful cite the last two Democratic administrations as the source of their fervent hope.

Looking back, they see Bill Clinton first.

Though his presidency brought an end to the twelve year Reagan-Bush era, it likewise brought an end to the forty-plus year Democratic domination of the House of Representatives.

While Obama is blessed with a Congress controlled by his fellow political travelers, Conservatives take heart in Clinton’s mid-term defeat. Hoping he will experience the same freshman failure to translate enthusiasm into policy, they are preparing to bide their time in the role of the loyal opposition till Obama’s mid-term test.

With a history of tension and outright competition between Democratic Congresses and administrations, there are many who believe the odds are good that they will haphazardly cast victory into the ravenous jaws of defeat. With expectations that Obama will seek to govern from a pragmatic, centrist position, the potential for discord with the left-leaning Liberal-dominated Congressional leadership is substantial.

As the economy slides deeper into a burgeoning recession even while the current fiscal year’s deficit roars towards $1.5 trillion, the pressures to stimulate the American economic engine will come crashing head first into concerns over inflation and the national debt.

A plethora of issues from public education to ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to middle class tax cuts and universal health care are now cast in a new light. Priorities and policy must be realistically tied to resources (taxes). The accumulation and acquisition of those resources will in turn be a significant driving force behind the development of policy, for example tax rates and deductions. The result is a vicious political circle that can quickly exacerbate underlying philosophical differences.

When those differences rise to the surface, the potential for conflict exponentially increases.

Heartened by the potential for internecine among their Democratic foes, Republicans dream of resurrecting the success and momentum of the “Contract with America”. Should the Democrats falter and succumb to petty rivalries or attempt the take the nation sharply to the Left, Republicans will turn the 2010 mid-term into a referendum on Obama and the Congressional leadership much like the nationalized campaign that ushered in Grand Old Party control of the House for six consecutive Congresses beginning in 1993.

Casting their gaze back farther, Conservatives find the greatly loathed Jimmy Carter - the last true Liberal to occupy the White House. Dour and resolute in their convictions, they view the Carter years as the coda of a two decade long period of tribulation for the United States.

Humiliation in Vietnam, riots and tumult at home, an economy held hostage to the whims of Arab petro-states, assaults on the traditional family, moral decay and societal decadence and malaise following cancerous malignancy at the heart of American government are the images that haunt Conservative memories of the 60’s and 70’s.

The children of the “greatest generation” that had saved the world in the 40’s brought the American republic to its’ knees three short decades later.

Held fast in the grip of a self-imposed exile in the White House, Carter became the Conservative’s disdained and maligned poster child for the ills unleashed from the Pandora’s Box of Liberalism. In the face of Carter’s weakness of will and malaise of spirit rode Ronald Reagan - the larger-than-life and ever dutiful Conservative standard bearer.

Believing in the exceptionalism of America, he proclaimed her to be a shining city on the hill, a gleaming beacon of hope and inspiration. Extolling nationalism as a virtue, he rejected the self-flagellating apologists of Carter’s unreconstructed Liberal brethren.

So enthralling was his appeal and powerful his vision of what America could be that Conservatives stand in his shadow to this day. So much so that aspirants for the Republican presidential nomination fought bitterly as they sought to wrap themselves in his mantle.

Fearing decades of banishment from the White House due to Watergate and Ford's preemptive pardon of Nixon, Republicans viewed Reagan in almost messianic terms as he handily crushed Carter and his vice president in successive landslide victories. Adding insult to injury, the term "Reagan Democrats" was coined in reference to his appeal to blue collar workers and labor union members that the Democratic Party had traditionally viewed as their stalwart foot soldiers.

With sage tones, Republicans point to the Carter years as the crucible America had to pass through to prepare it for Reagan’s ascendency. As they come to terms with an Obama presidency, they take solace in the thought that while it may well be a long and arduous four years, it may likewise open the door for the next Conservative champion and another multi-term era of White House stewardship.

Though this is their hope, the question is who will this champion be and from where will they come?

Is Mitt Romney the one who will lead the Republicans out of the wilderness? Can he overcome the suspicion and doubts of so many Conservatives so he can lead them?

Can Sarah Palin survive the snakes and arrows of finger pointing, character assassination and intellectual disdain that has followed in the wake of the Republican ticket’s resounding electoral defeat? Can she rehabilitate her image and overcome the impression of intellectual shallowness that many on both sides of the political spectrum have of her? Can she move to the forefront of the Conservative movement while anchored to the Governor’s desk in Juneau?

Is Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal the face of the Conservative future, or perhaps Pennsylvania’s Tom Ridge or Rick Santorum? Could Charlie Crist from Florida or South Carolina’s Mark Sanford lead a resurgent GOP out of the South and back to the White House?

Can Michael Steele, the black former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland and contender for Chairman of the Republican Party, help expand the base to seriously incorporate minorities and contend for their votes? In doing so, might he position himself for a presidential run?

Reviewing the cadre that took the field to challenge for the last Republican nomination, as well as those names that have risen to the surface like so much flotsam on the political tides, it is strikingly clear that they must carry their search farther afield. They must look beyond those that currently stand at the head of their ranks if they are to find a champion both viable and capable of meeting the Herculean challenge of rebuilding the Party and its brand in the wake of two consecutive resounding defeats, much less of filling the dusty boots a former actor turned political legend left sitting by the Oval Office door.

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