Robert Taft, the Ohio senator and son of a GOP president, was often called “Mr. Republican” in the 1940′s and 1950′s. He was continually on everyone’s list as a presidential candidate from the late 1930′s to the early 1950′s, but Taft never received the nomination in large part because he represented the Midwestern, isolationist wing of the GOP in the intra-party fight for supremacy that was eventually won in 1952 by Dwight Eisenhower and the eastern establishment, internationalist wing of the party. The modern Republican Party is edging toward the same kind of foreign policy split – the John McCain interventionists vs. the Rand Paul isolationists – that for a generation helped kill Taft’s chances, and his party’s chances, of capturing the White House/Marc Johnson, The Johnson Report. More here.

Question: Are national Republicans too split on too many issues to pose serious threat to take back presidency any time soon?