Washington, Oct. 22 : Republican presidential candidate John McCain will fight the 2008 election to the end, though his path will be difficult.

According to a Washington Post analysis, McCain still has a fortnight left to try to change the trajectory of the race. The paper also predicts that unexpected things can happen in the remaining days, though the GOP’s future is almost certain to be different to what it has been the last decade.

According to Dan Balz, the Republican Party is facing an identity crisis, but it is nothing compared to what could happen if McCain loses to Barack Obama.

Balz says most indicators point to a bad election day for the Republicans. Republicans could lose 20 or more seats in the House and half a dozen or more in the Senate. That would come on top of major losses two years ago.

McCain trails Obama in the polls nationally -- although by margins sometimes so wildly different as to cause everyone to question how they''re being calculated. He is also on the defensive in enough battleground states.

McCain advisers and Obama see some tightening in the polls nationally and in some states.

“Underneath all the conflicting polls is the reality that the Republican Party is experiencing some of its hardest times since Ronald Reagan brought them to the White House in 1980. The country is under stress and unhappy, and the Republican coalition is splintering,” Balz says in his report for the paper.

Factors responsible for the malaise afflicting the GOP include the decision to spend 700 billion dollars to bail out shaky financial institutions, the diminishing influence of social conservatives, McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate and the split between the party''s neocons and so-called foreign policy realists over the prosecution and management of the war in Iraq and Bush''s overall foreign policy agenda.

What is most astonishing is Republicans Colin Powell and Kenneth Adelman breaking ranks with their party, abandoning McCain and siding with the less experienced Obama.

According to Balz, this shows not only that national security issues count for far less in this election than they did four years ago, but also that the Republicans may lack a foreign policy consensus that can help bind their coalition as anticommunism and antiterrorism have.

Republican governors have long anticipated that this could be a bad year and are prepared to step into any vacuum created by the results on November 4. (ANI)