Aftermath

Why did Republican lose? Some say it's because they strayed too far from their core values. Fiscal responsibility, states' rights, and immigration - with four years of single-party rule there have been ample opportunities to set conservative policies in motion, and make some permanent changes to American government.

Some pundits are taking this further by claiming that if Republican politicians truly acted like hardcore, uncompromising Republicans, and eschewed the need to "be liked" - then they would have been, quixotically, liked enough to be returned to office. Many of the people making this argument are also claiming that many of the Democrat congresspeople who were elected were trying to fool the voters somehow by coming off as moderates.

That theory confuses me, because it implies that what voters really want is hard Right politics - but if they can't get it they'll go for moderates instead of the softer Right offerings that made up the red half of yesterday's ballot.

The answer may be more simple. Iraq has been a mess, and people were willing to keep with the program for quite a long time, even while noticing that very little seemed to be changing - not the situation on the ground, and not our plan of attack (at least in any way that was made visible to the public). Katrina didn't help the average voter's growing suspicion that this administration has the capacity to bungle up a problem. This was enough to lose many voters in the middle. Add back in the key items mentioned previously (spending money like Democrats, offering no solutions on immigration, and losing their marbles over items like Shiavo) - and some combination of these will lose many on the Right - from the libertarians to the Buchanan sympathizers to the free market crowd.

That's how you lose an election.

There's much more to say about this, and the lead up to 2008, and the implication of today's announcement about Rumsfeld. To be honest I'm still trying to get my head around it ...