Remember back during primary season when Barack Obama got into all that trouble for saying that rural Pennsylvanians cling to their guns and religion? Well, all those Republicans who blew their tops after then-Senator Obama made those remarks better now hope that he was right about those folks in the Pennsylvania 'T' (that conservative area in PA between Philadephia and Pittsburgh) if they hope to win another statewide election in the Keystone State anytime soon. The Pennsylvania GOP is going to either need an armed rebellion or a whole lot of prayers to make it happen.

Of course, it's not just in Pennsylvania that the Republicans are struggling. They are slowly allowing the Democrats to make in-roads in all sorts of places around the country that were previously out of reach for the blue team.

Places like Indiana, Virginia and North Carolina hadn't voted for a Democrat for President in decades and yet, all three of them voted for Barack Obama in 2008. Other states like Montana, Arizona and even parts of Nebraska are moving out of the red column and into swing state status.

The GOP is being forced to defend themselves in more and more places, and at the same time they're running out of places to challenge the Democrats. Several swing states are now shifting into the solidly blue column.

Republicans who wish to regain control of Congress or the White House can not continue to allow this to happen - and no where is this more important for them than in Pennsylvania. The state is at a tipping point, it could tip back towards the middle and remain one of the largest swing states on the map or it could fall off the GOP's radar altogether.

The Keystone State represents 21 Electoral Votes (for now - the 2010 census will slightly change the electoral map) and without a shot at those 21 EVs the Republicans would basically be conceding about 250 Electoral Votes to the Democrats (John Kerry won 252 EVs in 2004; all of those states also voted for Barack Obama by at least a 9-point margin and show no signs of turning red in 2012).

Without getting into a state-by-state breakdown, if President Obama does not have to defend Pennsylvania, the Democrats will be able to play offense everywhere in 2012 and the Republicans will have to defend it all. If, on the other hand, the GOP can prevent Pennsylvania from slipping away, Obama and the Democrats will need to look for about 40 EVs in 2012 rather than 20, a far more difficult task.

Things aren't looking too good for the Pennsylvania Republicans though. Just like the GOP on the national level, the party's base is no longer the most shrewd and strategic block of voters in the country. The organized, disciplined and strategic approach that the Republican Party used to take towards elections and voting has given way to the chaos of the GOP's coming civil war.

The reasonable and pragmatic wing of the GOP will eventually win back their party from right-wing whack jobs like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin who seem to be running the show at the moment, but the question is when? Will it be soon enough in Pennsylvania for the GOP to stand a chance against Obama in 2012?

We may get some clues in the 2010 Republican Primary for Senate in the Keystone State. Arlen Specter, the 79-year old, incumbent, Republican Senator is seeking re-election. Statewide his numbers aren't great, but they're not terrible either - he has an overall job approval rating of 52 percent - above the dangerous 50% mark.

In the pre-2009 days, the PA Republicans would do the pragmatic thing and make sure that Senator Specter, a man with incumbency, excellent name recognition and an approval rating above 50 percent to his advantage, would become their nominee. They would take the safe bet, particularly when the Democratic Party has yet to develop a clear front-runner in their race, even if Specter wasn't exactly the most thrilling choice for most of them.

In 2009, however, things are different. The inmates are in charge of the GOP asylum and rather than nominating Specter, a moderate with a fantastic chance to get himself re-elected regardless of which Democrat he may face in the General Election, they seem hell-bent on nominating a right-wing, deregulating, tax-cutter for the rich named Pat Toomey.

Toomey is a former Congressman from Pennsylvania and is currently the president of an anti-tax organization called the Club for Growth. He is expected to step down from that position soon in order to formally announce what he has been hinting at for months, that he will run against Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania Republican primary for Senate.

At the moment, it appears likely that he will get past Specter. Despite already having lost a Senate primary to him by two points in 2004, and with 73% of Republican voters saying that they do not know enough about him to form an opinion, he somehow has a 41% - 27% lead over Sen. Specter.

That's pretty bad news for the incumbent - Republicans don't really know who Rep. Toomey is, but they'll take whoever they can get, as long as it's not Specter. On the plus side for Specter, 28% remain undecided and he appears to be geared up for a tough fight.

The race is likely to tighten up quite a bit before 2010 and in the end, if Specter ends up pulling off the win, it will be a signal to the rest of the political establishment that Pennsylvania's Republicans are still an electoral force to be reckoned with. If, on the other hand, they choose Toomey, they're essentially throwing in the towel and voting with their rabid, right-wing hearts, rather than their brains. While there is nothing wrong with voting with one's heart, the GOP does not have the luxury of ubiquity right now. If they want to survive, they need every victory they can get and can not afford to take principled stands at the cost of elections - especially in Pennsylvania.