Renewed Faith in Democracy, Not the Media

Charles Gibson opened ABC's evening news reporting yesterday's vote represented a "renewed faith in democracy." What liberal media?

Control of the Senate was decided by 7,217 votes in Virginia and 2,847 votes in Montana while 18 Houses races were decided by less than 5,000 votes. But Republicans aren't screaming about a stolen election (a good thing) and the media hasn't made the slightest suggestion of impropriety as in the previous two elections (a bad thing, though illuminating).

Also, despite fierce political polarization, voter turnout was up only slightly from the last mid-term election and forty Million Americans that voted in 2004 stayed home yesterday.*

Before the election, political observers repeated that if Democrats couldn't win in this environment, they may never win. They eeked out a victory... Before the election, I thought a Democrat House could be good medicine for a weary, monolithic government. After unexpectedly losing both houses, Republicans activists will have plenty to rally around in 08'.

By the way, when did the GOP drop the obstructionism accusations from their line of attack? Immigration aside, the 109th Congress was virtually crippled by Senate Democrats; "advice and consent" was nearly destroyed.

But the GOP couldn't stop playing defense and my Labor day prediction appears incorrect because of a mere 10,000 votes.

Aftermath: The GOP lost 6 seats in the Senate, 29 in the House, and 6 governorships.

*National Voter Turnout in Federal Elections: 1960-2004