This week a new President was inaugurated. Next week the Republican Party will select new leadership and begin a rebuilding process.

The liberal media have declared the GOP dead. They claim it is now only a regional or Southern Party at best. The same happened in 1964 after the Goldwater defeat and yet again in 1976 after President Ford was defeated. In both cases the Republican Party rose from the ashes to win back the Presidency just four years later.

The fundamentals are even stronger now. All of the exit polls in November showed that the majority of voters were conservative or moderate. A largely unreported statistic about the 2008 election is very revealing. The population of the counties won by Democrats was 127 million, while those won by the Republicans was 143 million.

The special elections since November have gone toward the GOP. It will, however, take more than "Mighty Mend It" to save the GOP. It will take bold leadership able to: "Stop looking at our country as RED or BLUE and people as BLACK, BROWN or WHITE. Realize that the best politics is good policy. Understand that our country needs answers to our problems now more than ever."

Political pollster, consultant and former Gallop executive Lance Tarrance calls 2008 an "odd election rather than a realignment." He points out that it was "a referendum on an unpopular President in the middle of a financial meltdown."

To rebuild, the GOP should re-adopt President Reagan's "BIG TENT" philosophy. The party needs to be one of INCLUSION not EXCLUSION. It also needs to recognize, as Tarrance says, "our country's problems are bigger than partisan politics." As we seek solutions, "we need to find a new way to speak to the growing numbers of non-partisan voters."

As President Obama begins his historic journey, he will have a prolonged honeymoon with the media. That is not the case with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Positive ratings for Congress are in the single digits. The liberal leadership in Congress will try to push Obama to the left as he struggles to meet expectations.

In the first Reagan mid-term election (1982), the popular President lost 26 Republican House Seats. If the Republican leadership learns from the past, stays focused on the future, recruits good candidates and speaks to the growing non-partisan vote about the real problems our country faces, we will bounce back strong in the 2010 Congressional elections.

Ken Rietz lives in Delaplane VA.