Fantastic article. One of the many important points Barone makes is this: Building a serious person-to-person volunteer army in the GOP depended on having an incumbent president who was a known, trusted, well-liked figure among the Republican base. And, as Barone also points out, we will not have this luxury in 2008. We have to hope that much of what we built in ’04 can be carried over into future elections.
It is not at all a safe bet.

Essentially, the GOP will need to find a candidate who has 1) executive experience, 2) some level of ’down-home’ charisma, and 3) integrity. Bill Clinton had the first 2 (not the third!), but Bush has all 3. Pretty scarce...where in the world will we find these traits in a single human being?

Rudy Guiliani has at least 1 and 3. 2 is debatable.