What went wrong for the GOP?

My husband and I agree that the biggest problem for McCain and Palin was the George W. Bush administration. It is hard to believe that after 8 years of leading the country (6 of which included a republican senate majority), we are now stuck with an even bigger government and a national debt in the trillions. To me, the basics that the republican party stand for are less government and conservative spending. Sarah Palin agrees (see Politico.com):

Palin pointed a finger at the Bush administration for souring the GOP brand, adding that it was “amazing” that the McCain campaign did as well as it did.

“I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a $10 trillion debt in a Republican administration? How have there been blunders with war strategy under a Republican administration?” Palin said.

“If we’re talking change, we want to get far away from what it was that the present administration represented, and that is to a great degree what the Republican Party at the time had been representing. So people desiring change, I think, went as far from the administration that is presently seated as they could. It's amazing that we did as well as we did.”

Well, I'm no prognosticator, but I would be willing to bet that the Obama administration will not diminish the size of our government, in fact, he will increase it. And we all know what to expect with the spending...

So this bodes well for 2012, right?