Looking at the outcome as it stands now, I see a few things to be thankful about. 1) Now Democrats don't have to fix the mess of the previous administration. It's their bed, let them sleep in it. 2) If a Republican Congress and President CAN'T fix things over the next 4 years, I don't think we'll be seeing another Republican president until 2020. 3) George W. Bush has been, by far, the president most ripe for lampooning ever. The Daily Show will have a mountain of material at it's disposal, along with SNL, and all other comedy outlets. 4) In a bit of good news for the Harris County folks, Prop 1 passed with flying colors, while Prop 2 barely slipped through. Prop 1 has legal prescedent though, and will most likely be implemented, while Prop 2 will not. You should ALL be extremely thankful for this. Any other thoughts?
Some good, new protest music would be nice. Too bad the "majority" would rather have lip-synced garbage.
Donny...I agree with #1 and wholeheartedly agree with #2, as long as the Democrats are able to do some soul-searching and back away from the left-side ledge they are currently walking along. The Democrats have to become more centrist. Until then, the south will be solid red states.
The democrats have four years to change things, but here's the reality of what we are seeing in this election: (1) The young vote can NEVER be counted on to show up. In the 72' election with Vietnam as the primary issue, the young vote did not show up. Then we have this election when the youth were reprotedly outraged by the Iraq war and again they didn't show up. So much for one of the most liberal populations in the country. (2) An incumbent Republican president that has made mistakes, has had the entire media and entertainment machine trashing him since Election Day 2000, who is viewed as dumb, incompetent, and a liar by at the very least half of our country STILL won the majority in the electoral college and popular vote. In fairness, this may have more to do with the inadequacies of John Kerry as a presidential candidate, but in my opinion the Republican incumbent has never been more ripe for defeat and it didn't happen. Keep in mind that we are in a new era of media coverage as well with several 24-hour news networks that in my opinion have gone out of their way to paint a bad picture of the president fairly or unfairly. (3) Large voter turnout no longer is a definite benefit to the left. This year we are seeing the largest voter turnout in four decades and the Republican has won the race. (4) The Minority Leader in Congress couldn't even win re-election in his own state. I am not a liberal, but if I was I would find the above four points EXTREMELY disturbing to the future of the democratic party. Your point is taken on Bush fumbling the presidency in the next four years benefitting the Dems for years to come, but I would argue that he faced re-election under those circumstances in the 2004 election and STILL came out on top. The Dems are going to have to come up with something really good to change these trends and it isn't the divisive Hillary Clinton in 08'. Expect the next four years to be even uglier from the left towards the president than the last four years have been as right now it seems their party can not afford to reach across the aisle if they want the White House in 08'. Divided we stand.
You forgot two tiny little insignificant things.. One starts with a nine and ends with an eleven.. the other starts with an eye and ends with a rack. No Republican has ever lost an election during war time, no?
True, but you have to consider that the polls leading into the election were saying that half of registered voters disagreed with the War in Iraq and that the majority of registered voters thought that the country was "heading in the wrong direction" neither of which fall heavily, if at all, on the Bush side so I maintain my original point that democrats should be very considered with where the party stands this morning after last nights results.
The good news is there should be one hell of a stock market rally from now until probably the end of the year. And the rally has started today...
It would appear that the Dems have a younger base and Republicans still have abysmal support of the constantly growing minority community. If the right doesn't start reaching out now, they will probably start seeing some heavy losses in a decade or so. So it's not all gloom and doom for you guys.
I wouldn't say NEVER, but certainly not until the actual voting process becomes much more "youth-friendly" - i.e. potential eventual internet voting, etc.
On the contrary... The Right solidified their base during the Primaries and at the same time reached outside of their base to moderates, minorities, and the young during the Republican Convention. Liberals take for granted that they automatically get the young vote because of MTV but just as many Young Republicans were recruited this year than in any year. More Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Jewish Americans voted for this President which the Liberals didn't think would happen. The Republican party is in good shape for 2008.
African American support for Bush was still under 20%. I'm not saying that no progress has been made, but the Republicans can not afford to rest on their laurels.
stock tip for ya- invest now in war contractors and halaburton with no re-election to worry about and the changes in the house and senate, let the #&$ raping begin
Nah. Halliburton was at $15 a share right before the War in Iraq started, in January 2003. That's when you should have bought it. It's at $37 now.
the good news: only four more years of W. the bad news: after that, we'll have eight years of Jeb. that's a pretty solidly f**ked up 12 years. please excuse the slippery slope. i'm a bit frazzled today.
