With polls predicting a crushing defeat for John McCain on Tuesday, and Republican candidates expected to fare badly in congressional and senate elections, GOP leaders have already started to blame one another for defeat and battle over where the party goes from here.

In a week when polls showed a surprisingly tight race even in John McCain's "safe" Arizona backyard, it was revealed that his party has called a post-mortem summit meeting of top conservatives and advisers to be held later this week at a secret rural retreat in Virginia.

If McCain loses, what lies ahead is a period of civil war which could make the infighting in Britain's Labour Party in the early Eighties and the Conservatives in the late Nineties seem like child's play. Social Conservatives and the Christian moral majority are already arguing that McCain's campaign strayed too far from core issues like opposition to gay marriage and abortion.

"Normally you have to lose an election before the bloodletting starts but this time it has started early and it's already at an intense level," said Norman Ornstein, of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington-based think-tank.

Adding to the sense of unease among Republicans is what is perceived within the party as a dearth of rising stars who could add energy and attract a new generation of voters.

"The party is at sea and doesn't know where its future is. There are lots of different factions and there is a power struggle," said Ornstein. "There is a sense of there being a vacuum at the top after eight years of Bush, and a questioning of who is going to fill it."

One name already figuring large is vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Though not universally admired, Palin's conservative values and folksy charm have proved popular with the Republican base. Palin added to speculation that she plans to run for the presidency in 2012 should McCain lose on Tuesday, declaring when asked about her political future last week that "I'm not doing this for naught".

McCain advisers last week complained to the media that Palin was a "diva" who had gone "rogue" while Palin's advisers blamed McCain's team for mishandling her.

Other names seen as integral to the future of the GOP include 2008 failed presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, and young house members Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Eric Cantor of Virginia. Intriguingly, some Republicans are talking up the Indian Asian Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal as "the next Obama".

Details of the Virginia post-election meeting are being kept secret and it is said that it will go ahead regardless of the outcome of Tuesday's vote. State chairmen and prominent activists from the conservative wing of the party are expected to be on the guest list for the meeting which will look at who should take over chairmanship of the party, whether the party needs to switch to the right and to make plans for 2012.

With the Republicans facing a long period in the political wilderness, the aim is to build a new grassroots organisation, similar to the party's resurgence after defeat by Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1976.

"We are going to see a more conservative party emerging after this period of soul searching," said Ornstein. "The moderates are leaving. It remains to be seen how long the party will take to rebuild itself. It won't happen overnight."

Some Republican insiders predict that the party could bounce back by the mid-term elections in 2010. Even within the party, many dismiss a recovery within two years as wishful thinking.

"This party is in a mess and there's no magic wand out there that can fix it," said one insider who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It is going to take a lot of hard work on all sides. We can only hope that the party comes out of it stronger."