The problem with the Pubs as I see it is they hardly ever acted like a majority party. There were no answers to the false claims of RATS, no united front with the President. There were no press conferences called at opportune times, there was little behavior that made them appear to want to be in charge.
That's what the perception is I believe. People who think a party is disinterested or luke-warm about being in charge often grant them just what they seem to want. Ask George Bush Sr.
That said, I'm optimistic about todays elections for the Pubs. But if they lose significant ground it'll be much for the reasons I outlined above. IOW, their own darned fault. Many of these contests shouldn't have been anywhere near a horse-race, IMO.
The usual way the media covers such press conferences is to do 10 seconds on the point the Republican is trying to make and then give 4 Democrats 30 seconds each to rebut the points the Republican was trying to make.
How many times does a Republican office holder have to try calling a press conference only to see the media coverage result in a well designed attack on the Republican position. It is not hard to see the resulting media coverage is counter productive to the Republican cause.
I am amazed at the power of the media to convince Republicans that if their elected officials only used the media to tell their side of the story the media would cover it fairly.
Republicans in Congress act as if they believe that the Democrats are, indeed, the rightful rulers of the country and the Republicans are just sort of marking time until the Democrats get their act together to be able to take charge again.
Agreed. 100%.
The Republicans ran the most spineless and lackluster campaign I can remember since the early 90's. There are so many things they could have said/done to turn this around and that they didn't some days makes me think we really are part of the "stupid party".