The Republicans’ chances at taking back the White House are slipping away. Nate Silver’s latest electoral college projection looks bad for Romney:

He’s a 4:1 underdog. Ouch. There are only 60 days left and only a few undecideds to win over. The GOP needs some sort of miracle to turn the numbers around.

Unfortunately, Mitt is not much for surprises. He’s run a boring campaign. He’s not a good speaker. He lacks warmth and charm. He’s a bit of a weirdo. And he refuses to tell anybody just how he plans to do the mysterious things he wants to do should he become president. This is a bad strategy for a guy the voters already suspect is little more than a people-pleaser. The idea that a politician can win by going before the nation and simply saying “Trust Me” isn’t a good one. But that’s been his thinking. And he’s getting beaten.

So reality is setting in upon the wingnuts. They’re probably going to have to wait for 2016. And the grieving has begun. What do they say about the various stages? The first is denial. Derp Hoft:

Doug Patton:

Doug Ross:

Larry Kudlow:

National Review readers:

Stage two, anger. Andrew McCarthy:

After a first term that has been historically abysmal, President Obama stands a good chance of being reelected. How can that be?

Here is the blunt explanation: We have lost a third of the country and, as if that weren’t bad enough, Republicans act as if it were two-thirds . .

You cannot cede the campus and the culture to the progressive, post-American Left for two generations and expect a different outcome.

Ass-Rocket:

On paper, given Obama’s record, this election should be a cakewalk for the Republicans. Why isn’t it? I am afraid the answer may be that the country is closer to the point of no return than most of us believed. With over 100 million Americans receiving federal welfare benefits, millions more going on Social Security disability . .

Michael Knox Beran:

The signs of the times are as foreboding as the chorus before the palace of Oedipus in Thebes. The jobless rate stands nominally at 8.3 percent, but is in reality considerably higher. Some 55 percent of voters say they’re not better off than they were four years ago, and more than 60 percent of them think the country is on the wrong track.

The oracles of Gallup and Rasmussen paint a gloomy picture for President Obama, but even if November should bring him another term of office, it will not restore him to the height from which he has tragically fallen.

George Will:

And then there’s spunky Charles Krauthammer. He’s got one foot in each stage:

Given the state of the economy, by any historical standard, Barack Obama should be 15 points behind Mitt Romney. Why is he tied? The empathy gap. On “caring about average people,” Obama wins by 22 points. . . As [the First Lady] told it in the convention’s most brilliantly cynical speech, her husband is not just profoundly compassionate but near-Gandhiesque in feelings.

He’s making the transition. Sucks to be you, Chuck. Next week: bargaining.

I see that Mark Kleiman at Reality Based Community has beaten me to the punch, as it were. A doff of the cap to you, sir.