Damo, I don't know what you expected.
A victory margin of 15 to 20 points??? To my knowlege, those types of landslides never happen except in the case of an extremely popular incumbent versus a flawed and unviable opposition candidate.
Which didn't apply to this election. Say what you will about McCain, but he was a viable candidate. The only viable candiate the repugs could have nominated. The only dude that could have run against his own party. LOL.
So the 2008 election was for a democrat who opposed the GOP, and a republican who claimed he was running against the GOP, in effect. LOL. That hardly supports your argument that there is substantial republican strength.
I really don't think losing 80 house seats, 15 senate seats, and a presidential blowout on the scale of the Dukkakis blow out, over the last two years, is a sign of relative republican strenght.
But, if republicans think there isn't anything fundamentally wrong with their party, I'm cool with that.