There are only so many concessions that should be made to keep any coalition or party together before it is time to turn out the lights on the people causing the concessions to be made.    In a democracy, the operating principles are very simple: When the popularity or public acceptance of any leader or group falls to a consistent low, that leader must be relegated back to normal party membership or role of elder statesman. The dims did this with Jimmy Carter, recognizing his prestige would never recover. It is a simple fact of politics, nothing personal. We really should not encourage them to stick around, use the down time to rally their appointments and base such as is being done with Bush, Obama, Clinton.