Well, I'm a registered Republican. I voted for Dubya. As a rule, I do not push my views onto others nor do I look down on them. I have heard some very interesting commentary about this election in the last 2 days. Although most of it came from highly conservative talk radio, it really put an interesting spin on the whole political scene.

Even the right wingers have said that they are afraid of the downturn that this could cause the democrats. For months, the mantra that has been chanted (either directly or indirectly) by the Dems isn't "Vote Kerry" nearly as much as it has been "Anyone but Bush". (Hell, I saw 2 bumper stickers just this morning with that slogan on it.) Looking from the outside, that is very difficult to rally around.

The Dems had the numbers to be able to take the White House; however, their key demographics historically do not have great turnout at the polls. How many times did we see celebrities trying to get young voters registered? (Will Michael Moore just disappear now for a while???) The 18-25 voter turnout was yet again a very small percentage. The other 2 areas that are historically big backers of the Democrats are union people (and the % of union workers to non-union workers is the lowest since the industrial revolution) and minorities. Again, not a high percentage of voter turnout in either of those categories. (New rule... if you didn't vote and are upset that Bush won... you get an automatic kick in the nuts)

It will be extremely interesting to see if there is any backlash and infighting within the Democratic party. They took perhaps the largest political hit in US history, unable to gain the White House and are now the minority party in both the house and senate (and Tom Daschle losing his senate seat could have more of an impact on the Democratic party than losing the presidency).

The Dems have 2 years to get themselves back in line and strengthen their party. As I stated before, I'm a registered Republican, but I don't think that a 1 party system has any merit to it. Although flawed, the US government was setup with a series of checks and balances. Although rival political parties wasn't originally part of that framework, it has definitely become that way. I'm a middle of the road kinda guy. Balance is good.

Regroup and come out firing!



and for Hell's sake, don't let Hillary run in '08... LOL

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