The real question today is not just who won which race, but what the election results mean for each one of us and the issues we care about, such as the war and the economy.
MRB:
I am sitting here still stunned from what happened yesterday. I had thought the Democrats would pick up the 15 needed to take the House once again. I was hoping that we'd end up with a close split in the Senate. I did not expect the over whelming victory we had. I am all smiles and have been calling and emailing friends around the country patting one another on the back. Wow. Twelve years of eating at the kids table and now we get to sit with the adults.
The question is, after the smoke from the celebratory fireworks blows away, what really happened and, maybe more importantly, how did it happen?
What happened is that a clear message was firmly delivered; not a mixed, irritating message the Republicans could sneak around again, but one that can't be ignored. All the biggest wins, and the ones most people paid attention to, were a referendum on our failed national policies. Not just about Iraq and its obvious issues but also a more subtle message that the citizens -- not just Democrats by the way -- that we are upset by hypocrisy, scandal, taking our hard earned status as the world's greatest power and abusing it by holding much of the world in contempt for having intelligence, upset at the out of control spending, upset that economic upswings only help those in the wealthy club, upset at a lack of compassion for our own countrymen.
How it happened is even more clear. Actually the Democrats probably didn't have to do half of the work they did to win. All we really had to do was watch the GOP implode over the last six months. They kept making the case for us. Control of both houses and the executive gave them a false sense of invulnerablity. They made themselves a laughing stock with their shenanigans which was bad enough but when it involved tragic decisions concerning the lives of our young men and women fighting in Iraq who are bearing the brunt of their arrogance, that's contemptible.
This has given the Democrats what they wanted and there is enough hunger that they just may be able to pull the next two years off beautifully. They have a lame duck President running so scared he let his best buddy Rumsfeld fall on the sword today. The top issue has to be Iraq. No one really believes we can just pull out. That's a worse cop out than what we have been living with for three years. But there must be a New Direction, to quote our running theme, and that can be found. I don't feel we had any reason to reveal any possible plans during this election period and play into Karl Rove's hands. But now in the next three months there has to be a serious plan in place. Period. And no Republicanesque excuses that it can't be done. Do it.
But is this a complete 180 degree turn to a liberal philosophy? No. I don't think so. EJS and I were talking today and we agree that if you look at the local races, state legislatures, individual referendums and propositions, people are still overall moderately conservative. They want our government to reflect who they are; attempting to lead lives of positive morality, of fiscal restraint, and of accountability for one's actions. I urge both Democrats and Republicans to look very closely there for the answers. That's not too much to ask is it?
KJW:
Republicans had hoped to make this years election about local issues. However, according to exit polls, national issues were more important in determining their votes by a nearly 2-1 margin. And most of the national issues cited by voters as important reflect the negative mood of the American public this election.
Despite the opportunity that presented itself to them this year, Democrats have historically squandered chances to make inroads into the Republican control of Congress. This year for some reason that didn't happen. So what did the Democrats do right this time?
They didn't let the Republicans frame the issues. As I said above, the Republicans wanted this election to stay local. Conversely, the Democrats wanted this election to be a referendum on President Bush and the Iraq war. The Democrats succeeded in making it into a referendum.
Politics is often about perception. Perception is influenced by the sound bite. Sound bites such as "Stay the Course", "Cut and Run", and "Tax and Spend".
This time the Democrats didn't crumble but instead turned the tables on the Republicans with these sound bites. The Democrats came after the President strong on the Stay the Course theme. It worked so well that the President disavowed "Stay the Course" and even went so far as to say that it was never the administrations' policy.
Democrats also for the most part stopped calling for an immediate withdrawal in Iraq and simply took the position that we needed to take a "New Direction" with regard to Iraq. This strategy unquestionably worked. The interesting part of this strategy is that the Democrats used it effectively without ever defining the "New Direction".
The traditional Republican attack on Democrats has been that he / she is just another "tax and spend" liberal. For whatever reason you didn't hear that too often during this election. One reason may be that the current Republican administration / Congress has spent like their worst Liberal nightmare.
The first casualty of the election appears to have been Donald Rumsfeld. This morning Secretary Rumsfeld resigned. He is being replaced by Robert Gates, the former Director of the CIA. Gates is currently a member of the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan group that will soon be making recommendations with regard to a new strategy for the handling of the Iraq war.
Rumsfeld's resignation may be a sign that President Bush is truly interested in working with the Democrats. The President's action in replacing his Defense Secretary may be helpful with regard to avoiding gridlock for the next two years, but it is nevertheless too little too late to avoid the change of power that happened in this election. Now to '08 . . .
EJS:
Taps is playing today for the Republican Party. As we sit back and lick our wounds, we must not wallow in the defeat, but learn from the mistakes and get back to representing positions and issues consistent with the conservative base that put Republicans in office in the first place; the same base that failed to save their necks yesterday. This morning we learned that Secretary Rumsfeld has decided to resign. I don't understand why Bush didn't do this six months ago; maybe if he would have made some concessions such as this before the election, it wouldn't have been as bad as it was yesterday. Chalk it up as another in a litany of GOP mistakes.
Now it is time to have an old-fashioned sitdown and house cleaning for the GOP. It is glaringly apparent that the leadership within the party is subpar, or completely nonexistent. The GOP House contingent now has the duty of selecting a minority leader. Denny Hastert and John Boehner cannot be the future face of the Republican party. We need a leader who inspires the party and constituency. One name who I have heard thrown about is Mike Pence, Republican from Indiana. Ken Mehlman, the GOP chairman, is probably also finished. Karl Rove's credibility has taken a hit with this loss. The President needs to stop listening to political advisers such as Rove and Karen Hughes, and listen more to the people and the generals on the ground in Iraq. Overall, the GOP needs to clean house and get back to the people and values that put them there. If they are able to do this, and once the people see how inept the Democrats are during the next two years, the GOP should be able to regain control in 2008.
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