More Politics

So President Bush also is stating that the overall "thumping" that the Republicans took was a result of discontent with Iraq. I still maintain that it is a result of discontent with the President, including Iraq, lack of fiscal discipline, and that no significant changes have been enacted during his term-and-a-half.

Apparently conservatives as a whole have moved away from the Republican Party in this election, including so-called "Christian Conservatives":

Exit polls suggest that Democrats made significant gains among several religious demographic groups, including both Catholics and evangelical Protestants. While the party's 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry won barely 20% of white evangelicals, for example, almost 30% voted Democratic this year. Democrats won the backing of 55% of Catholics this year, compared with 47% in 2004.

That is from the Wall Street Journal Online today at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116303697315518036.html

Another good WSJ article on politics today is http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116304212211318140.html "Outcome Shakes Up '08 Calculus For McCain, Clinton and Others"

2008 is still a long way off, and I think the biggest mistake the Democrats could make along the road to '08 is to continue their partisan ways in Congress and nominate lots of far-left-wingers to run in the Democratic primary.

Election Results

I am glad that Bob Corker will be our new US Senator. I do admire Mr. Ford in that he ran a tough race, and was a more than gracious loser. While he will not be serving in Congress for 2 years, I think he will be back in public service in that time or less.


Nationally, many pundits have stated that the election would be and or turned out to be a referendum on the war with Iraq. However, I would define that more broadly, and state my view that the election turned out to be a referendum on Bush himself. Many sources (citing exit polls) have stated that approximately half of voters said they cast their votes for or against candidates as a way to send a message of opposition or support of President Bush:

More than a third of the electorate said it was voting to send a message of opposition to the president, according to Election Day interviews with more than 11,700 voters as they left the polls. That was 15 percent higher than the segment of voters who said they were voting in support of Bush.
Among voters who said they had backed Bush's 2004 re-election, one in six cast ballots for Democratic House candidates yesterday, the exit poll found.

That quote is from http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-te.election08nov08,0,925892.story?coll=bal-home-headlines .

It will certainly be interesting to see if the Democrat controlled House can work with the Republican controlled Senate and President Bush. I strongly suspect that not much will be accomplished by either side in Washington over the next two years. As a side note, usually a lack of activity in Washington is good for the stock market.