Make no mistake about it: With the White House witnessing support for the Iraq war crumbling among its own members in the Senate, and GOP senators being forced to fall on their swords for an immigration bill with little chance of passing the House of Representatives even if it gets out of the Senate, it's a long shot that any Republican can win the presidency in 2008.

Even states the GOP has been able to take for granted in recent presidential elections are now in doubt -- not necessarily for worry that they would go Democrat, but that conservative voters will be too demoralized to vote at all.

But a ray of hope shines over the gray horizon if the Republican Party finally -- out of desperation, if nothing else -- finally breaks out of its reflexive habit of offering only white males for vice president. Add a little flavor to the ticket, guys!

You don't reach the type of success Hutchison has enjoyed in a state like Texas without knowing how to take on big-time, powerful opponents.

After years of the stern and scowling Dick Cheney as vice president, presenting a softer side to the GOP ticket might be the remaining chance the party has to harvest a significant number of women voters, particularly against Hillary Clinton.

And if the Republicans actually won the election, Hutchison might bring to the vice presidency the refreshing notion that her office is a part of the executive branch of American government, instead of its own office of shadow government. Perhaps a Vice President Hutchison could help restore the belief that Republican officeholders aren't always secretive and uncompromising.

It's a refreshing thought, if nothing else.