Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Robert A. Gleason Jr. must be an eternal optimist.

His party is in shambles, having lost more ground to the Democrats in successive election cycles, but Gleason is choosing to look at the few bright spots in Tuesday's Election Day debacle.

From a statement Gleason released after the GOP took a beating at the polls Tuesday:

"First of all, we would like to thank John McCain and Sarah Palin for the race they ran and their commitment to our Party. Tonight, was certainly a historic night and we recognize Barack Obama for a hard-fought victory. That being said, our Party is proud of the work we were able to accomplish, but certainly not satisfied."

"Over the last three days, our Party had tens of thousands of volunteers contacting millions of voters to support John McCain, Sarah Palin and the rest of our Republican ticket. Thanks in large part to the work of our dedicated volunteers, we were able to re-elect Attorney General Tom Corbett, send Glenn 'G.T.' Thompson to U.S. Congress, expanded our majority in the State Senate and won key State House seats."

Let's recap. Pennsylvania Republicans kept the Attorney General's office, but lost the other two statewide row offices on the ballot (treasurer and auditor general), held on the 5th Congressional District seat vacated by Rep. John Peterson and managed to keep six other Congressional seats.

Republicans hold just 7 of the 19 Pennsylvania Congressional seats. The GOP held 11 of 19 before the 2006 elections.

At the state level, the GOP held on to majority control of the state Senate, but could not pick up ground in the House, where Democrats increased their majority despite being implicated in the biggest corruption scandal in state history.

As long as we're talking about change, it might be time for some new blood in the ranks of state GOP leadership.