election lessons
i think the electorate is more sophisticated than 2 years ago. voters are willing to oust popular incumbents to change the majority. that takes a bit more strategic thinking than i've noticed in a while.
issues may have trumped "values."
mr rove may've expected the eminent domain issue to bring gops to the polls, but it looks like voters saw it as party-neutral.
minimum wage and stem cells, in contrast, may've helped dems.
the religious right apparently turned out and voted the same as in 2004, yet arizona became the first state to defeat an anti-gay-marriage ballot measure.
is race still a factor? only one african american took a major vacant office. 3 lost [md, oh, tn], including both gops, who got a higher share of black votes than gops usually get, but a great majority of african americans voted for party, not race. i can't be sure that's true of white voters, but antiracism may've reversed the virginia senate race.
except maybe in tennessee, smear ads and scare tactics didn't work.
"it's time for a change" and "throw the bums out" did.
The increase in the youth vote, reversing decades of trends, may have played a positive roll as well. These are well informed young people who are usually too hung over to vote - but apparently, thankfully, they made an exception. The GOPs have ruined it for the youth, so that may have been the unforeseen dynamic overlooked by Rove et. al. ? dK
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