[rhombus]

I think you make some good points about independents and the war. The war was a hard case to make when the media was atively working against it. I still believe it was the right decision and the middle east will be far better (as will we) if some form of representative government can be established there. Will we ever be able to win a war that takes longer than a year again? That is a serious question.

[Mr Rogers]

I agree with you.

But lets face it - anti-Iraq is a bigger motivater for the mushy middle than most anything we could throw at it this year. Add in folks tired of corruption, and we couldn't motivate the middle to turn out for us.

[Wallace T.]

Americans do not like "no win" wars, and never have. As far back as the Civil War, Democrats gained ground in Congress and the Northern state governments in the 1862 off-year election as the South generally won the battles. Had Sherman not taken Atlanta and marched to the sea, McClellan might have defeated Lincoln in 1918. Had the D-Day landing not been successful and our forces not made advances in the South Pacific, FDR might have been defeated by Dewey; as it was, the 1944 election was the narrowest electoral victory that Roosevelt won. During the Korean War election of 1952, voters gave the GOP control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency for the first time in 20 years. Republicans made gains in 1966 and 1968, capturing the Presidency, as the Vietnam War ground on. For their turn, the Democrats gained ground in 1970, as Nixon's conduct of the war seemed similar to that of Johnson. Had Nixon and Kissinger not forced the North Vietnamese to the bargaining table in 1972 through bombing Hanoi and Haiphong, a measure that conservatives had advocated since 1965, that year's election might not have been a triumph for Nixon.

The GOP disaster of 2006 is a repetition of an old pattern dating back to the Civil War era. If America does not achieve a military victory, or it looks like we are not making headway, the party in power suffers. Like it or not, Americans will not suffer prolonged, indecisive conflicts.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

The war was a hard case to make when the media was atively working against it.

The main thing about the war that the stupid MSM is not reporting is that, yes, people are angry over the war because we're not waging real combat, we're too busy trying to win hearts and minds and the Bush admin let the MSM bog down the war even more with the phony "atrocities" and "torture."

Bush should have made this a central point and told people that the Dims/MSM are making the war drag on even more with their propagandizing. Coulda, woulda, shoulda...now Bush has to live with the consequences of dealing with a Rat Congress.