Conservatives in the "Wilderness"

Just in time for Lent, we get an excellent post from Darwin with a "wandering in the political wilderness" theme:

To many of the folks over at NRO's The Corner, the prospect of a McCain sweep today is being looked at rather like a hangman's noose. Some have gone so far as to suggest that the conservative movement would be better off spending 4-8 years "in the wilderness" under a President Hillary than under a President McCain. The theory is, that with a clear foe in the White House, conservatives would have to go off and re-group and come up with new ideas.

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Now, McCain is clearly not a movement conservative either. The difference is, everyone seems pretty clear on that. Given the fits they're having about him at the moment, it seems to me that conservative writers should be motivated by a McCain presidency to go off, do some thinking, and come up with some direction which has in many ways been lacking since the days of the Contract With America. With a President Romney, on the other hand (assuming he could even win the White House, which I kind of doubt) I fear we'd have another case of conservative writers spending much of their efforts running cover for a president who is not actually governing that conservatively.

In other words, couldn't we spend our time in the wilderness under a President McCain rather than a President Hillary?

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(emphasis added)