Markos Moulitsas

In July of last year, Thomas Friedman declared the end of the traditional two-party system. “Write it down: Americans Elect,” he wrote in The New York Times. “What Amazon.com did to books, what the blogosphere did to newspapers, what the iPod did to music, what drugstore.com did to pharmacies, Americans Elect plans to do to the two-party duopoly that has dominated American political life — remove the barriers to real competition, flatten the incumbents and let the people in.”

The early 2012 conventional wisdom was that Republicans would easily take control of the Senate this November. It was a perfectly reasonable supposition — 23 Democratic seats are up for reelection, with the GOP defending just 10. Given that Republicans need a net pickup of only four seats for an outright majority, the numbers appeared to be squarely in their favor.

In 2008, Oregon and Washington — which had for years been considered swing states in presidential elections — emerged as near-solid Democratic cornerstones. President Obama won both states by an identical 17 points, and no one pretends they’ll be in play this year. On the flip side, Arkansas and West Virginia became solid red states, while Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia achieved coveted battleground status.

Last week, presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney met with some Bethel Park, Pa., residents around a picnic table, supposedly to talk about the state of the economy. Instead, Romney eyed a plate of cookies.

Republicans know how to read polls, and they know they have zero chance of winning the White House in November if women continue to give President Obama massive advantages.

President Obama rode a gender gap to victory in 2008, winning women by a 56-43 margin while narrowly edging Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) among men, 49-48.

Republicans had such high hopes for their little Puerto Rico primary last Sunday.

On the campaign trail on Monday, Mitt Romney brushed aside charges that he was a weak front-runner. “If I’m a weak front-runner, what does that make Newt Gingrich?”

Facing an intense backlash from the public against their recent war on the reproductive freedoms of women, Republicans spent considerable effort last week trying to change the conversation to one of “religious freedom.” Whether they were making headway is debatable, but it no longer matters — thanks to Rush Limbaugh.

Republicans used to be so good at using dog whistles — those coded messages that hid their true agenda from average voters while letting the faithful know that the party was on their side. But in this Tea Party era, dog whistles are increasingly anachronistic. Conservatives demand overt allegiance to their agenda.