Misunderestimated

Hopes that the strong economy and a realistic view of the Islamofascist threat -- and a relentlessly positive drumbeat by some pro-GOP bloggers -- led to some hope here that our loss in '06 would be less than what was anticipated by the hungry media ... and in that, there would be a touch of GOP victory.

But the DNC got an early Christmas president as the population did not agree, leading to a flip-flop in the House (GOP went in with 232 seats, DNC came out with 232 seats) and a Senate that will make Dick Cheney a very, very busy man.

My biggest disappointments:

• Our wonderful troops will be dispirited.
• The Islamofascists will immediately read this as a victory.
• The European/UN elete will immediately read this as a victory.
• It will take a lot of hard work, perhaps an impossibly difficult amount of hard work, to convince either group otherwise over time.
• The media will be elated and will be reinforced in their belief that it's ok to drop objectivity to achieve their personal political objectives.
  

Behind these dispiriting results, though, is an America not too unlike the America that went into the election.

As Hugh points out, the race may have resulted in a major shift of power, but it did so by the tiniest of majorities in the individual races; see his George Smiley Post #10 on races lost by less than 2% or fewer than 5,000 votes.

The Dem's mandate is as thin as W's was in 2000, and they are very likely to misunderestimate that, to Hillary's chagrin in 2008.

Related Tags: Politics, Election 2006, DNC, GOP, Bush