Wednesday, November 08, 2006

The Morning After

It appears that both the House of Representatives and Senate will be in Democrat hands for the next two years. Hardly historically monumental for a "6th yr election" it was significant nonetheless. From my perspective this was not a win for the Democrats so much as loss for the Republicans. The left offered virtually no plan, no new ideas, no solutions but rather only an alternative to the other guy. The old anybody's better than that Republican pitch and it worked.

There are several reasons this was good enough to get the job done and I'll name a few. First the Republicans after 12 years of uninterupted power lost both their passion and hunger. They abandoned many of their core principles and got fat and happy in their positions. In a nutshell they forgot to dance exclusively with the one brung em. With few exceptions Republicans ran lackluster campaigns that left their base uninspired and the middle unimpressed.

Secondly, they encountered the most one sided press that I have witnessed in my lifetime. Giving up every last pretense of fairness the media subjected the American people to a relentless anti GOP diatribe that couldn't be overcome. The cheerleading for the Democrats was as obvious as it was incessant but it worked to a degree.

Lastly, the Democrats were clever in their choice of candidates. They ran conservatives in the Red states and several of them won. This could prove to be a problem for them down the road but I'll leave that discussion for another day.

The biggest dissapointment was Steele. He ran a flawless campaign and was hands down the better man. Timing and location were his enemies. In any other year and practically any other place in the country he would have prevailed. He'll be back, count on it.

Unfortunately we can look for very little getting done in the next two years. Majorities this slim are impotent. Look for endless hearings on Bush, the Iraq war, and a host of other time wasting endeavors that encompass everything and accomplish nothing.

This is a wake up call for the right, get your act together or lose all the marbles in 08. Expect Bush to dust off his veto pen and pray for a conservative firebrand to emerge from the ashes to rally the troops before the next election. Conservative ideals are still the majority held belief in this country , our passion for pursuit of those is the only winning ticket.

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