[Jeff Head]

FYI...although my own hopes for a larger victory were not realized, still, this victory sent a clear message and was no squeaker.

My biggest concern is the fact that over 55 million people voted for Kerry.

We have won a significant battle, but the war continues. It is a continuing, protracted struggle for the heart and soul of this great Republic. We are faced with an ideology and party that just put forward as their proposed Commander in Chief of our military and the leader of our nation, an individual who betrayed his comrades in arms and his nation for his own political gain, and who did it based on lies, fruad and deceit. He has never retracted those statments, he has never apologized or been held accountable for those actions. His twenty years in the senate is a clear indication that he had not changed and would have done the same as the leader of this nation. Thank God he was defeated.

But it is not done, we must continue to do all we can to defeat any party and ideology that would put forward such a choice to the voters of this nation. That would fool, mesmerize, take in and enlist tens of millions of our fellow citizens in such a cuase so opposed to every thing our nation was established uipon.

God grant that we will have the faith, the strength, and the will to continue the fight.

[Robert357]

I think that there are many important lessons to be learned from this election. I am very very glad that Bush won. I believe that this was a very important election and that the protection of the US homeland was at stake.

However, with a Republican Controlled Senate and House, Kerry would have not been able to accomplish any of the "plans" that he liked to say he had, but never spelled out.

The first lesson learned is that Presidential candidates need to be "physically attractive." There are lots of studies that say handsom men are more sucessful. I feel that Kerry was choosen as eye-candy by some Democratic machine folks. I remember one Kerry interview where a woman introducing him said he was just so very handsome! While I want to believe that choosing a leader should be about substance, some of the american people don't feel that way and we have to realize it.

If we want to make sure that our candidate wins he should be capable of great stump speeches delivered with conviction. While difficult for Bush he was able to do this when absolutely necessary. If he had been better at the TV debates (or the media a little less stacked against him) then he would have done even better and had more of a "mandate."

A candiate doesn't need to be a war hero, actually the candidate can have criminal or huge moral mistakes in his past. People knew Clinton had a very questionable past, but still voted for him. I am not going to even talk about Kerry as I feel his......

The candidate needs to have a vision of what he wants to accomplish and needs to sell the public that he "can" implement the vision and they will benefit from it. One of the things the Contract with American, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and GW Bush did was provide Americans with a vision they could believe in while they entered the election booth. We many not all have liked all aspects of the visions and some of us may have found them revolting (i.e. some of Clintons more government), but the majority of voters had a feeling they knew what they were doing. It also helps if the vision makes people feel good about themselves and/or that they are going to make life better for their children and grandchildren.

Now lets look at the County red/blue map again and think about 4 years from now. We know that the huricans in Florida have caused a lot of folks to consider leaving parts of the state. Republicans should very carefully track "who" is leaving (i.e. republicans or democrats) those key democratic counties and where the heck they are going (i.e. are they going and to red or blue counties in other states.

The next election will not be redistricted via a new census and so House seat elections could be damatically changed 2 years from now and the next presidential election could have some subtle population shifts. If the Republicans are smart and track key Counties in Florida, Ohio, and some other states, we may find real opportunities. The red/blue County map shows that wining just a few key Counties in some swing states could make a huge Electorial College Difference.

It would be worth the effort and expense by the RNC to do some demographic tracking after identifying some key Counties.

That County demographics can also help cement control of the Senate and the House. I feel that control of the Executive Branch plus House and Senate is a good way of removing "jobs" for Democrats in Washington DC and with the federal government. That in turn forces career democrats, and those who are part of the Democratic "brain trust" and the campaign managements and campaign leaders of that party to find other lines of work.

The Republicans need to destroy the ability of the Democratic Party to find partronage jobs for its workers at the federal level. If we can do that then future campaigns will be much easier. It is a worthy goal.

[ken5050]

Jeff....excellent and well written as always. Let me add two points that will make you smile..

1. Much is made by the Dems of thier reocrd turnout against Bush. From what I've seen of the numbers, something like 85% of their increase came in the blue states, where they won't be worth a pfennig in electoral votes..

2. Even better..2008 is the LAST presidential election this decade..then we have a census, and re-apportionement, and there's a strong probability of another 7-10 shit in EVs from Blue states to RED states....That makes the electoral college math for the dems very, very, hard..

[103198]

Now we must focus on the 2005 and 2006 elections. In Virginia, we have the all important Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, House, and Senate elections and amendments next year. In 2006, we have to work to reelect Senator George Allen. The political process never ends and is a continuum for us and our offspring. I've always felt that every election is the most important election in my history (think what could happen if Rudy runs for Senate in 2006 in NY and wins).

Now is the time to analyze lessons learned from this campaign, organize, poll, canvas neighborhoods, and get ready. The democrat party has been severely wounded (again) and there's nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal (some might argue an ex-wife is).

[Bigun]

We have won a significant battle, but the war continues.

Indeed, but this was, without doubt, the most significant victory in the war to date!

[Netizen]

Please check your mail.

[steveegg]

Not only do your (and Gerry Daly's) colors make political sense, they restore the overriding tradition that the incumbent party is represented by blue (which is how Bush got red last time).

I wish we had delivered Wisconsin for both Bush and the Senate. I managed to get my sisters to vote for Bush, and my hometown of Oak Creek went for the President, but the Milwaukee/Madistan/college town fraud was once again too great. The good news is the Pubbies increased their majorities in both houses of the Legislature.

[Southack]

"My biggest concern is the fact that over 55 million people voted for Kerry."

A valid concern, but overhyped.

The American public was BOMBARDED by news media lies such as:

1. Bush will bring back the draft (it was Democratic Congressman Rangel who submitted the bill to the House to re-instate the draft),
2. Bush will stop your Social Security checks (Bush's SS Privatization plan actually puts money into your personal trading account, thereby PROTECTING that money from an SS collapse),
3. Bush went AWOL (the documents touted by CBS were actually forged),
4. Bush is dividing our country (it is actually the Democrats who have gone out of their way to "fight" their fellow Americans at every step)...

...And the list goes on.

But it didn't work. Rigging the exit polls didn't work. Hyping fake "missing explosive" stories didn't work. Blaming Bush for rogue homosexual and bi-sexual prison guards at Abu Ghraib didn't work for them, either.

Not only did the news media's partisan attacks fail, but news media print circulation declined and news media viewership on non-Fox network and cable news channels fell as well.

The American public didn't buy it. The public didn't buy the nonsense about the "worst economy since Hoover." The public didn't buy their nonsense about "misleading us into war."

The left failed. They rolled out all of their dirty tricks. They played the race card at the polls (e.g. "disenfranchisement" for daring to require picture ID's). They ran front page lies (e.g. the infamous "17 words" from GWB's State of The Union address). They talked down our economy (since when is 5.5% unemployment "bad"?!).

They resorted to violence. Union goons tore up Bush/Cheney signs being held by a 3 year old girl. They tried to run over Katherine Harris. They broke into scores of Republican Party local headquarters buildings.

They hired on and activated more than 10,000 trial lawyers to contest ballots and voting requirements. They filed lawsuits in state after state.

...And still they failed.

More than just failed, though, was that we *gained* votes in 90% of all states compared to 2000. We won 4 or 5 additional Senate seats. We whipped them in governors' races. We took control of formerly Democratic state legislatures. We gained national House seats. We beat gay marriage in all 11 states where it was on the ballot, and beat it even in Massachusetts where it wasn't on the ballot (though their state Supreme Court stepped in anyway).

The Assault Weapons Ban expired with barely a whimper from the gun-banning Left. The Partial Birth Abortion ban passed over the ardent shreaks of the Left.

They lost on every issue in almost every state, save for funding human stem cell research in California.

It was a rout.

...And their old tricks will work even less well for them in 2006 and 2008 because we're wise to them. We're also wired, and we're even more powerful now.

[Eagle Eye]

We also have t remember that a significant segment of each side's vote was not 'for' that candidate but in reality 'against' the opponent.

How many really voted against Kerry or against Bush? Who knows since they all look the same on paper.

[S.O.S121.500]

"But it is not done, we must continue to do all we can to defeat any party and ideology that would put forward such a choice to the voters of this nation. That would fool, mesmerize, take in and enlist tens of millions of our fellow citizens in such a cuase so opposed to every thing our nation was established uipon."

I've already fired/terminated all of my democrats......gone. Replaced the most with conservative-minded folk.

I know they now FEEL THE LOVE.

[NetSurfer]

Like cancer on an MRI.

[cyn]

my thoughts, too. kerry was a dismal candidate, yet got so far ? ? ? things are gearing up for '08 (is the Dem slogan to be "more hate in '08" ?); they will not make the same mistakes again; here's hoping and praying they make others, and that more conservatives engage in the culture war.

[Jack Black]

I see an unalterable divide. I really suggest everyone here go to Democratic Underground (where we are not allowed to post, per their rules) and read what they are saying. Expect a lot of anger, profanity, anti-religous bigotry and hatred. See a lot of mischaracterization of who we are and what we believe.

I see this divide as somewhat permanant. On a personal level people can and do change. In my experience getting people to either become involved in the shooting sports or going to church and over time their politics are going to change. I run a discussion group that is mixed liberals and conservatives and there has been movement to our side, in a few cases dramatic movement.

But this is change at the margins. In general I feel the lines are hardening, not softening. It may even be that there are some pretty big internal population shifts going on. In my own case I left California a decade ago to escape the new, liberal driven anti-gun agenda. More recently I moved from Oregon to southern Washington to remove myself from the absurd tax jurisdiction. This may be happening more and more, "red" people moving to "red" states. (Jeff, I don't think you can reclaim Blue, sorry).

The elected national Republicans are at least subliminally aware of this. Spectors recent comments are reality, he's the only one blunt enough to serve it up. They don't want to be put in the position of fighting tough battles in the culture war. Most of them have no interest in rolling back Socialism in America.

We don't know how much Bush wants to push for this, either. We won, but only by 3%. Pushing back against some leftist programs that are well established could easily result in a 3% shift. Bush has been smart to put together this majority. A great job. But like our majority in the Senate, it is wobbly in the middle.

On the other hand there are many activists out here, and I'd put myself in this category, who are somewhat exhausted of working to deliver power to Republicans and not seeing much of substance come out of it. In fact the Prescription Drug program, another huge entitlement and a big block in the ongoing Socialist conversion of America (and medicine) was delivered by OUR GUYS. That really hurts.

So the Dems have some hard medicine to swallow today, but we may have more to swallow in the next 2 to 4 years as we see Bush struggle to maintain a majority coalition and address the concerns of the base.

The facts are, a lot of these issues are not grey-grey. They are somewhat black and white. And in most cases despite all these Republican gains the Liberal status quo is in force, in law.

Abortion is legal, by dint of judicial activism.

Taxes are high, very high for high income earners, and even small cuts are met with demagogury from the left and left-media. Abominations like "earned income tax credit", a direct transfer payment to selected favored working poor is the law of the land. Bush's tax cuts were only passed with a time out provision.

Spending is out of control. Lots of liberal causes are directly funded. We pay to shoot ourselves in the foot. Again demagogury is the order of the day if anything is even proposed to be cut.

The large entitlements are structurally unsound. The Dem plan to fix them is "tax the rich" .. accelerating the transition to a Euro-socialist model. So far the Republican alternatives, again designed to split the difference and not offend, are subject to lies and distortions.

Affirmative action, absurd eco regulations, endangered species laws, activist judges, obviously illegal campaign finance laws, removal of God from the national heritage, the entire New Deal, public universities as Marxist training facilities, the list goes on and on.

All accomplished fact. What many of us want is a 'velvet revolution' that rolls this back. I have little hope in seeing it happen, even after the work and the great victory we have just won.

We are a nation with two radically different visions. Alignment with them is along a continuim, some all the way Red, some hard Blue and most between the two poles. My sense is many are moving away from the center.

Certainly many of my friends are moving towards the Red Pole. Less acceptance of the status quo. Less willingness to put up with NY Times lies. But all this is not, to date, resulting in real changes for the better in my life. Every time I go to the desert there is more closed land, land that is already so empty it is probably less visited today then it was 100 years ago. Taxes keep going up, spending keeps going up.

How this is resolved I do not know. Paul Wyrich suggested conservatives "have lost" and we withdraw from the political process. (He speaks for Christian conservatives in particular) ... that we build alternative institutions. Thats not realistic. Blue Staters will tax us, regulate us and eventually convict us with impunity.

The Free State Project, which has made many mistakes along the way at least poses a great challenge in their motto:
"Liberty in our Lifetime". It's a goal I can sign onto with gusto. I'm skeptical I shall live to see even a small part of it achieved.

Thanks for posting the topic, and all your inspiration, Jeff!

[MamaB]

Hey Jeff and everyone,
We just got back home from B'ham and hubby's knee surgery. I learned a lot down there in the waiting room. Some people did not like Kerry, some did not like Edwards but more disliked both. People were upset with Soros, and the others who had big money in the democrat campaign.

While I was waiting, a nurse came out from the OR and said as the patients were waking up, each wanted to know the same thing, did Bush win. It was very interesting hearing these people express their opinions.

Hubby is doing great and we are glad to be home. I sure did miss this place.

[Salvation]

Thank you for posting the correct colors. The lamestream media didn't make the switch, in my opinion, because they wanted the connotation of Red to go with Republicans. Buit this year it was supposed to be switched like your posted map.

[Salvation]

Click here for the correct colors--then choose year 2004

[knarf]

That's a beautiful map.

I remember being very angry after the first map came out and I found a way (I forget how, now) to reverse the colors.
I posted it here and said "There, that's better", but folks here seemed, at that time, to prefer us as red and them blue.

[Monti Cello]

The whole WMD albatross would have sunk a lesser President. Particuarly combined with the unprecedented media assault, and the emergence of Bush-hating as a pop phenomenon.

On the other hand Kerry was a horrific candidate -- it is alarming and frightening he was that close. But hey, a win is a win.

[SrBirdman]

SrBirdman

[dougd]

The bad news is: compare 2004 county map to 2000 county map and you'll see that almost nothing has changed - counties that changed from red to blue or vice versa are hard to find.

We did a great job of getting out the vote, but so did the dems - just not quite as good. Will we do as well in 2008? Will they?

We have 2 big challenges to make significant progress in: urban vote and countering the media wing of the dem party.

As to the media - we like to hope that our 'new media' is an effective counter to the 'old media' - but most of the new media really just opines on the stories created in the old media. Our new media really needs to develop its own original reporting and more effectively reach the population at large - especially those not in our choir

Finding ways to swing a significant portion of the urban vote is where we really need some creative thinking and serious action.