If you want to hit an American conservative where it hurts, just mention the names of the three great Republican presidents: Abraham Lincoln, the president who held America together despite the Civil War; Dwight D. Eisenhower, the World War II general who, as president, defied communism; and Ronald Reagan, the man who supposedly defeated the Soviet empire.

The men running for the Republican nomination for the most important political office in the Western world seem like political minnows by comparison. It would be no exaggeration to say that none of these men can even measure up to the current president, George W. Bush.

Not even their personal lives conform to the values they preach. With only one exception, the candidates currently leading the Republican pack have all been married more than once. The frontrunner, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is on wife number three.

Giuliani, who seeks to market himself as being tough on terrorism, also has another problem: He has appeared in drag at a number of parties in the past, appearances that are naturally available for public viewing on the Internet. He campaigned in favor of abortion while running for New York mayor, because it was opportune in that race -- now he is seeking to reverse his stance on the issue.

Giuliani's children are very interested in politics -- just not their father's. His daughter, Caroline, 17, has said that she supports Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who says derisive things about the Republicans on a daily basis. His son, Andrew, 21, has made it clear that he will not be available for joint campaign appearances with his father.

This aversion stems from their father's character deficits. Giuliani's second wife learned of their separation when he announced it at a press conference, and the children hold it against him to this day. His former political ally, legendary former New York Mayor Ed Koch, has called Giuliani a "nasty man" -- and hardly anyone seems to disagree.

Giuliani's political track record isn't nearly as impressive as members of his campaign team claim. They say that he left New York City with a budget surplus at the end of his term, but this was largely attributable to the booming years of the New Economy. After that, the city plunged into the red once again.

Giuliani's campaign also claims that he recognized and took steps to combat the dangers of radical Islamism early on. In reality, he consistently downplayed the threat, as evidenced by many statements he made in old interviews. As the mayor of all New Yorkers, Giuliani was hesitant to turn off any potential voters, and he was especially loath to foster animosity between Muslims and Christians.

The fact that Giuliani is currently the most promising of all Republican candidates says a lot about the quality of his fellow candidates. Wherever one looks, the right wing lacks even a single candidate of true presidential stature.

Giuliani's main rival, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (running under the campaign slogan: "Strong. New. Leadership.") suffers from a chronic cash flow problem, which has forced him to inject increasingly large sums of his own assets into the campaign to stay in the game. Arizona Senator John McCain, a former Bush rival and Vietnam veteran, once seen as the Republicans' shining hope, is slowly running out of steam, at least financially.

The words "No Surrender!" are emblazoned on the side of McCain's campaign bus. He is referring to the Iraq War, but the motto could almost be seen as the old warhorse's words of encouragement for himself. His thinning white hair and large belly don't exactly give voters a sense of future promise. Instead, McCain comes across as a well-fed spokesman for a retirement home who likes to speak passionately about the institution's food and its beautiful landscaping.

Abandoning the Middle Class

The incumbent president is of no great help to the conservatives in their journey of self-discovery. One of President George W. Bush's most salient features is that he has achieved precisely the opposite of what he intended. The national debt has grown since he came into office, and America is far less safe than it was in the past. Meanwhile, the gap between rich and poor has only grown wider.

The right wing has no satisfactory answers to the big questions facing American society in the age of globalization. The Republicans seem perplexed as they encounter the phenomenon of an eroded middle class. In the United States, this bastion of capitalism, it is all too obvious that globalization is creating even greater divisions within society. Few members of American society benefit from globalization, while the vast majority struggle to prevent further decline. Many Americans face shrinking wages, a weakening social safety net and declining job security.

Middle-class workers in particular are in real danger of extinction in the United States. Under current conditions, they have simply become too expensive to survive. A regular unionized worker in Detroit costs companies $70 an hour, compared with the $40 per hour which companies like Honda and Toyota pay their US workers. They in turn face wage pressure from South Korean carmakers Kia and Hyundai, for whom an hour's worth of labor costs half as much or less.

A blue-collar worker in Detroit is more expensive because his pay encompasses a social benefits package which is the result of hard-fought achievements in the past and which includes, for example, pension and health insurance for the worker and his family. The cost of employer-subsidized health insurance alone adds about $1,000 to $1,500 to the sticker price of every car that rolls off the assembly lines at Chrysler, Ford or General Motors, according to one study.

As a result, Detroit's Big Three automakers have been trying to reduce labor costs for years. In particular, they have been trying to lure unionized workers away from their plants with attractive severance bonuses of up to $100,000 apiece, the goal being to bid farewell once and for all to costly workers.

In recent weeks, yet another heavy financial burden has been shifted from the accounts of GM to the shoulders of autoworkers. After a strike that lasted several days, the United Auto Workers signed an agreement with GM that largely eliminated the company's obligation to pay the healthcare costs of retired workers.

The situation in the United States has already progressed to the point where the victory march of Asian automakers is not only reflected in their growing market share, but also in the falling wages and weakening social safety net of US autoworkers.

These problems are no longer unique to Detroit. Sixteen percent of the US population, or 47 million people, lack health insurance, a number that has increased by 9 million in the last seven years. These new additions to the ranks of the uninsured are not the result of rising poverty or a sudden outbreak of corporate greed, but of the fact that American companies doing business internationally are now forced to operate under newer and cruder rules of engagement.

The Democrats are trying to confront the new era head-on. One of their plans would involve the government stepping in to fill the gap left by companies providing fewer social welfare benefits. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's idea of establishing mandatory health insurance for all, a plan that failed 13 years ago, has now proven to be wildly successful in the campaign, opposed by only one small group within US society -- the Republican establishment.

As in the days of former President Ronald Reagan, the Republicans characterize Clinton's plan as nothing but big government and seek to brand it as "socialist." Karl Rove, the chief strategist in the Bush campaigns, wants to see his party turn the conflict over healthcare policy into a central issue of the 2008 presidential campaign, presenting voters with choices like government-run healthcare versus the market economy and a healthcare bureaucracy versus free choice of doctors and insurance companies. "Republicans can win on health care," Rove wrote in a recent op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal.