Self-flagellation Republican style

The Republican National Committee is out with a 100-page analysis of how the party can revive its sagging fortunes. Doubtless many of the recommendations are good ones — more outreach to minority and women voters, better candidate recruitment, fewer debates during the primaries, openness to immigration reform, competing with Democrats in absentee and early voting and much more.

Some of these things may help, or at least, as my grandmother would have said about chicken soup for a cold, they can’t hurt. Others sound a little desperate, such as “Republican leaders should participate in a...