From The American Conservative digest for September 20:

Daniel Larison argued that “a Romney administration would represent the return to most of what went wrong with the right during the Bush years.” He also responded toRod Dreher’s post on the prospect of a GOP civil war.

Gleanings from the linked items:

• George W. Bush was the Carter of the modern Republican Party, and most Republicans still can’t grasp that this is how he is perceived by people outside their camp.
• … the automatic response among many movement conservatives to losses in 2006 and 2008 was … to make believe that the only thing that the Bush-era GOP did wrong was to indulge in a little too much wasteful spending.
• Romney and Ryan reverted to Republican tactics from 2010 by posing as defenders of the Medicare status quo for current beneficiaries.
• How does a Republican lose in this environment? If the GOP standard bearer does lose, there should be Robespierre-like recriminations.
• … if there were a GOP civil war, who would the opposing sides be? … Where is the Republican version of the [Democratic Leadership Council]?