Bush keeps head up despite loss of House

AP ^ | November 8, 2006 | JENNIFER LOVEN

[West Coast Conservative]

President Bush struck a businesslike tone Tuesday night as the Republicans lost control of the House, making plans to call the woman poised to become speaker of a Democratic House majority.

Bush, unaccustomed to political defeat, planned a morning phone call to Democratic minority leader Nancy Pelosi and made plans to give his take on the midterm election results at an afternoon news conference.

Asked if the president was surprised that the House was headed for Democratic control, Snow said it wasn‘t "a slap-on-the-forehead kind of shock."

[Cheburashka]

...but the elecorate was overwhelmingly in favor of closing the border, halting illegal immigration, and nullifying the Supreme Court's dispicable eminent domain decision.
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And they way they've voted they're certainly going to get even less of that. Nose, pavement. Bloody knife, hand.

[My2Cents]

I really wish this administration would get a clue.

Ditto.

[My2Cents]

Concede all the issues to the media and the rats, and make up for it with "organizational muscle".

Someone last night (don't remember who) said that when you lack a solid message and agenda, the organizational machinery isn't enough. Maybe the turn-out effort resulted in minimizing losses...it could have been worse...but clearly we don't win with a superior ground-game alone. We still haven't figured out a way to speak around or over the heads of the media. Instead, Bush has largely allowed himself to be pounded for 6 years, and chosen to let a lot of accusations go unanswered. It discourages the base when they don't even try to answer the critics.

[Savage Beast]

It is possible that the Democrats, pragmatists that they are, could see the political wisdom in halting illegal immigration, at least to some extent, now that they have proven that they don't need the illegal alien vote to get elected, and they might oppose Kelo, recognizing (as the Republicans did not) that it would be politically advantageous to do so.

But what do I know? I thought Hillary might solve the health care mess--being a lawyer, who is in a position to know that litigation is the reason medical care has been priced out of the reach of everyone, and a woman of formidable intelligence, as the newsmedia repeated like a stuck record.

Actually, there's comfort in knowing I don't known nothin' about nothin'. Maybe the world's not is as bad shape as I think. Maybe I'm nuts. Maybe I need to get a hobby relax with the conviction that I habitually hallucinate so might as well not worry about it.

I've known for a long time that either the Left is bonkers or I am.

[My2Cents]

1. Failure to close the Mexican border and halt illegal immigration.

I think this is a canard. Why do you think we got wiped-out in Colorado, and J.D. Hayworth lost? The Republicans there took a hard-line against illegal immigration, didn't promote a comprehensive reform of immigration that included a guest worker program and a path to citizenship, and this hurt in the growing Hispanic electorate. It used to be that the way to get things done was through compromise, but the strident "Secure the Borders First" crowd doesn't compromise.

I pretty much shut up about the immigration issue as the election neared, and particularly as Congress voted for a fence, but without a comprehensive approach to this issue (i.e., following Bush's lead), this issue is a loser for conservatives. Rove told Hugh Hewitt on Monday that refusal to moderate the strident position was going to hurt on Tuesday, and it did. You folks told us that if we were tough on immigration, we'd win. Well, guess what...we were tough on immigration and we lost. Rant all you want...your position is a loser.

[My2Cents]

In other words, we've been totally ineffective in telling it like it is. I know we have the entire MSM against us, but instead of figuring out a way to work around them, we've just laid down and taken it. The one good thing to come out of yesterday is that we can get rid of our limp "leadership" and get some fighters in there.

[blitzgig]

"The MSM hates Conservatives, and they always get what they want."

Don't be so down. The MSM can be beaten, and we DID beat them in the 2004 election. We failed to beat them in this cycle. But we'll have another chance to crush them in two years, and I for one will welcome the opportunity.

[samtheman]

The Rove legacy: Assume the base will follow you and then fail to lead.

[Herakles]

Couldn't agree more.

Sometimes you kinda wonder what these people were drinking or smoking? Looks like someone was calling the shots from somewhere (the RNC?) for the last several years that was a complete incompetent and had his head stuck the whole way up his ass! No group can do this poorly unless they work at it.

I've seen this before in organizations that mature and someone, usually young, gets put in a position of power and he does not know nearly as much as he thinks.