How can the GOP resurrect itself?

McCain people are calling Palin a "diva" and a "whack job," McCain himself is looking inept and vicious and this is his last hurrah anyway due to age, no one will even mention Bush. Membership in the GOP has plummeted and membership is now down mostly to the religious right which pulls its platform ever further from what most voters believe. And it's getting a reputation for outrageous smears, e.g., Obama is a socialist and terrorist. What can the GOP do to become a respectable party again?