The Republican's first 100 days back in the minority

Since we touched on President Obama's first 100 days, this article about how the GOP has done the first 100 days of being back in the minority again caught my attention. I can't say I agree with all of what is written, but it's interesting to take a look at the perspective offered by Indiana's Governor, Mitch Daniels. One of the statements I found especially interesting:

NJ: What do you think is the lesson that Republicans have learned from these bad election results?

Daniels: I think it has restored us to our roots in fiscal prudence. And that has not gone out of style, would be my observation, despite the unbelievable orgy of spending that has started in Washington. I don't find very many people who think that's good policy, and many more are very worried about it....

When I have heard from people at the national level, I've said, "Listen, accept that we're going to have to spend some time in the penalty box." There are not going go be instant recoveries. The American people are going to want to know: Did you learn any lessons, and do you have some new plans for us? And that doesn't happen instantly, but it can happen within the two-year window or a four-year window.

Basically this all comes down to how will the ideas put forth by the Democratic party work, since they do have the majority and they do have the presidency. If it works? Then even if Republicans try to recover they are going to have a hard time convincing people they can do better. If it doesn't? Then they get a free skate as far as avoiding blame and get to try to promote their message of what they'd do differently...