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How soon do we get our rebates, free health care, lower taxes, better schools, and cheap energy?

Scary, scary times. This is thier base? This is who beat us? We made mistakes and we lost and it is our fault but good lord it is scary who is in power now.

johnnyturk, keep your chin up, after the nation sees they have no plan we will be back.

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An informed voter scares the Goverment lackeys.

An American first and always a Conservative.

I don't think so Rob. I have a feeling it's going to be one long, ugly downhill slide from here on out.

Kix, well all we can do is keep the faith and hope the voters realise what they did to this great country.

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An informed voter scares the Goverment lackeys.

An American first and always a Conservative.

Mmmm… You know what’s scary?… how so many have bought into the Rove Rhetoric and how divided we find ourselves. Independents handed the victory to the Democrats. The Senate could go either way. And now it appears Joe Liberman will be the most courted Senator on the floor. “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”(Mark Twain)
For now, the Independent thinkers have the edge.
For over half of the thinking Americans, meaning those of us who vote, yesterday was a glimmer of optimism, what’s so scary about that?

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"If you don't know where you are going, you will probably wind up somewhere else."
- Laurence J. Peter

I'm not buying into the theory that Karl Rove somehow has this stranglehold on the minds and imaginations of so many people. We are divided as a nation because of a war. It's happened historically through time. The Civil War certainly, Korea, WWII and Vietnam all found a country divided. What makes it worse now is the media and how much media there is to cover the disention. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't think that many people are that stupid. The Republicans lost for 3 reasons:

1) The Iraq War: As Bill O'Reilly says, war is "a performance business". The news that continually filters in throgh the main-stream media is nothing but negative designed to make this country look like terrorists, murderers and not much better than the Nazi or old red Army. Lots of people don't blog or really delve into the complicated nature of this war and just eat what they are fed. That is their fault. What is and has been Bush's fault is his utter lack to communicate on a regular basis. You have to remember that for 6-7 months before the election there was nothing but bad news coming out of Iraq even if it wasn't all bad. Bush was able to have the luch of a weak opponent and a country who wasn't ready to turn power over to Democrats during war. However, the seeds of this "bloodbath" (my words) were actually planted during the Presidential election cycle. Bush's biggest gaffe of all was his claiming he had new "capital" to spend. He was wrong then and is certainly wrong now. The War in Iraq in my view needed to be waged and it was and is. Hopefully, the Democrats will be able to at least hide their disdain towards the soldiers and help give them the assurances and the confidence that they have not been offering or giving during the campaign.

Immigration: The majority of the country believes in tough immigration rules. Most of our forefathers came to this country-mostly from Europe-with nothing in their pockets but lint and nothing in their heads except a dream and imagination. Most of them spoke no English but soon learned to teach themselves the language. Imagine that today? Most of them got right to work because in those days there were no "social programs". You either survived or you didn't. It was that simple. Today, there are over 2,000 Social Programs of one thing or another. What has changed is this country's demands for others to assimilate into our enviornment. In a post 9/11 world it is a very easy scenerio for terrorists to come into the country the same way mexicans are. Bush despite his bravado was very lax on Illigal Immigration. I remember saying during the Presidential elections of 2004 that if the Republicans didn't start acting like Republicans that this would come back and haunt them. It has.

Scandal: Foley was really just the end of it. The Abramoff thing was big and Jim Ney being put in jail. Rove was investigated. It seems all the Republicans were at one point or another. While most of them were not indicted in the long run, the perception sometimes becomes the reality. The old saying is: "Say a lie enough and it becomes the truth".

People wanted change. Bush has turned everyone off. From conservatives due to his Immigration and other policy's, Harriet Myers.... If the Republicans are going to come back into power, then they need to give themselves an enima, clean house, come back with some fresh faces and be Republicans-not Democrats light.

Finally, I hope the Democrats get themselves together a well. They did not win this election because of ideas. They won because people needed change and they just happened to be there. They need a vision on the war. If they think they can do better than a 4.6% unemployment, give me a plan. Have a better energy plan? Show me. It should be interesting.

It will be very interesting to see that the one idea of partisan they pushed will fail becasue Nacy wants what Nacy wants and anyone who disagrees with her be damned. She is so anti Bush and still people bought what they/she were selling?

Shame Shame

Have you ever noticed the news from the "non partisan" media is always (1) How the Democrats are winning or (2) What the Democrats need to do to win?

You are exactly right in that the independents handed the victory to the Democrats, but the independents are not on the same page as Pelosi. What the Republicans failed to do was to educate the voters about people like Pelosi and Rangel. What do you think midwestern independents and Democrats think of things like partial birth abortion being OK? Or not allowing hospitals to report illegal immigrants who receive treatment? Those are just a couple of the policies of Pelosi which they would not be favorable to. Rangel doesn't think ANY of the tax cuts are valid. That means even the marriage penalty is brought back. I'll bet you that those midwestern independents are not in favor of that. The question is whether or not the newcomers will vote how they told their constituents or how the far left of the Democratic Party votes.

Throughout the midwest Democrats who are conservative were voted in. In Indiana a pro-war Democrat won over an anti-war Republican. In Pennsylvania a pro-life Democrat won the Senate versus a pro-choice Republican. In both Indiana and North Carolina Democrats were voted in who have much more in common with moderate Republicans than the Democratic base.

The Democratic Party was able to win so big in the midwest because of a lack in confidence in Bush as well as a new trend in the Democratic Party in recent years and that was running moderates. If these moderates stances get hi-jacked in the next two years then look for some of that power to shift back. Bush won't be running and his influence on the election won't be as big as it was this time. What the Democrats need to do is to make sure that Pelosi and those like her don't screw it up for those moderates. Over half of America had no idea who Nancy Pelosi even was. They will now. I am not so sure that is a good thing for the Democrats.