What the Republicans need to do, first and foremost, is assure that November 4th, 2008, is the high-water mark for the Democrat Party.

Obama may have a very long honeymoon with the public after winning a victory that was refreshingly easy after the past two razor-close elections. However, Obama will not be up for re-election in 2010. The heavily Democratic Congress will. From experience, Pelosi and Reid will probably be eager to flex their new muscles for two years and ram through a bunch of legislation. The Republicans, having dodged a bullet in the Senate by making sure the Dems didn't get 60, will be able to block the worst bits of legislation but won't have anything remotely resembling a mandate to do so, meaning they are still essentially at the mercy of the Dems.

Mainly, the Republicans need to not lose any more seats in 2010, either holding steady or (preferably) gain a couple. Nothing large, just setting up for later years. They cannot afford to come any closer to Magic 60.

In 2012 (and starting years before), they need to really work hard to mount a serious challenge for the Presidency. By that time, the honeymoon for Obama will almost certainly have waned and the Republicans would do well to mount a legitimate threat. I think the best option for this would be Bobby Jindal, currently the Governor of Louisiana. Jindal, an Indian-American, will blow the "Republicans are only the party of older white men" stereotype out of the water. He has a proven track record as Governor, competantly preparing Louisiana for Hurricane Gustav, which, as you may have noticed, did not catastrophically impact the state. I think Jindal, with a Biden-like figure as his running mate, say George Voinovich, could really make some inroads. Even if Jindal loses, the Republicans need to make a serious dent in the Democratic majority in Congress in 2012.

We're looking at 2014 for the year that Congress is reclaimed. If the Republicans get Jindal in, keep preaching the needs of fiscal conservatism (which will ring true under four years of Obama, Reid, and Pelosi), the best-case scenario is the Republicans knocking Obama out of office in four years for a competant, nontraditional (for them) candidate and then taking Congress in 2014.

That is the path they need to follow. But I think we'll see very early on, maybe within a few months, if this is where they'll head or not.