Jindal did badly. I don't know anything about Steele to know if he earned his post. Obama did so it's possible Steele did too.

Obama is writing the Republican platform for the next several elections via deficient spending and removing Bush's fiscal record as a talking point for the Democrats: Obama is already planning on a 2009 deficit 4x larger than any ever before, *before* dealing with the financial system problems. His 2009 budget deficit could easy top $2.5T, with only a third of that related to dealing with the recession.

Likewise he's created a severe tax-increase problem that will likely force back-tracking during his re-election bid. There isn't nearly enough money to pay for his programs unless tax rates are raised to 100%, right down to the $75k income bracket. Since that won't happen a lot of promises will have to be dropped.

The biggest advantage the Democrats have is that the Republicans haven't figured out how to muzzle their I'm-Stupid-And-Proud-Of-It part of the party. It took the Democrats a decade to get their idiot half to shut up long enough to win an election, and the Republicans may find theirs no quicker to muzzle.

The best news fro the Republicans is that Obama's win wasn't that big, especially when you look at the circumstances (the Bush factor, economic meltdown). Republicans can turn that around by merely recapturing Republican voters who crossed parties. Moreover, most of the job losses are already on Obama and it will get worse unless he does something.