Colin Powell on Meet The Press:

Colin Powell, who served as secretary of state during President George W. Bush's first term, gave a frank assessment of the GOP. "I think the Republican Party right now is having an identity problem, and I'm still a Republican," Powell said. "But in recent years, there's been a significant shift to the right, and we have seen what that shift has produced: two losing presidential campaigns. I think what the Republican Party needs to do now is take a very hard look at itself and understand that the country has changed. The country is changing demographically. And if the Republican Party does not change along with that demographic, they're going to be in trouble. "There's also a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party," he added. "Everybody wants to talk about, 'Who's going to be the candidate?' You've got to think first about, 'What's the party actually going to represent?' If it's just going to represent the far right wing of the political spectrum, I think the party is in difficulty."  There has been no better way to explain the need for the Republican Party to regroup, not around Rush, Glen, or the idiots on Fox, but to start listening to Americans who, for the most part, are upset at the decline of the middle class, the unprecedented growth of the top 1%, the lack of jobs, and the lack of competence on the part of those who are supposed to govern.  Today, there is no party for moderates other than the Democratic Party.  Republicans have purged all moderation from the national political scene and this, as much as anything, has cost them two winnable elections.  But for gerrymandering, Republicans would have lost the House of Representatives in 2012.  As it was, democratic congressional candidates received over one million more votes than republican congressional candidates.  Add to that the three million margin in the Obama/Romney election and it is obvious that republicans cannot win any longer on policy.  No one can guess what the margin of democrat over republican would have been if voter suppression and voter inconvenience had not been in place.  Further, without the results of the Citizens United decision which provided republicans far more financial opportunity, the votes for democratic candidates over republican candidates would have been even greater.  The republican party needs to realize that times have changed.  The days of electing someone with 13% of eligible voters is over.  The Bush campaign, aided by the Supreme court, is a relic that should not be repeated.