[jackv]

From what I have seen, with 20% pathetic turnout, there is no mandate to do anything conservative. Bush doesn't owe the conservatives squat. They stayed home Tuesday. Now we all pay the price.

[KeyLargo]

"Bush doesn't owe the conservatives squat."

That is something that conservatives have understood long before this election.

[concerned about politics]

From what I have seen, with 20% pathetic turnout, there is no mandate to do anything conservative. Bush doesn't owe the conservatives squat. They stayed home Tuesday. Now we all pay the price.

That's true. They deserted our troops, too. How awful they must feel!

The MSM pulled it off. Without the MSM biased news coverage, the democrats had nothing.

[Madeleine Ward]

You don't really follow the poliics of this because the GOTV effort was very successful in a lot of districts. Only thing is, they didn't vote for Republicans.

Now what does that tell you? Quit blaming voters. Blame the GOP who ran crappy campaigns.

[maica]

What do you mean by 20% turnout? I have not been reading much on FR since Monday - and virtually nothing in Dem media, so I don't know what this percentage represents.

[dmartin]

From what I have seen, with 20% pathetic turnout, there is no mandate to do anything conservative. Bush doesn't owe the conservatives squat. They stayed home Tuesday. Now we all pay the price.

Does this mean he can continue being a moderate and doesn't have to pretend anymore?

From what I recall his first election and all that 'political capital' he gained in the second was directly attributed to what conservatives delivered for him. Can you please tell me what has he done to advance the ideas of Conservatism during his Presidency?

[Menehune56]

I'm worried that a lame duck President Bush will feel absolutely no obligation to the conservative base. In fact he is probably angry with conservatives even though many of us have supported him through thick and thin, recognizing that he did not have a working majority.

Now the country clubbers are returning to power and we'll probably see a quick figleaf withdrawal from Iraq, a ''comprehensive'' immigration solution, ''moderate'' judges, etc.

[ConservativeMind]

Turnout was double your whining:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/ELN_TURNOUT?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-11-08-18-54-03

[ConservativeMind]

From what I have seen, with 20% pathetic turnout, there is no mandate to do anything conservative. Bush doesn't owe the conservatives squat. They stayed home Tuesday. Now we all pay the price.

Here, let me help:

The election turned out 40.4% of all voters. If we assume that 50% of the population is Republican and the other 50% is Democrat, then, out of the total, 40.4% of Republicans and 40.4% of Democrats voted, with each of them being 50% of the total of all people eligible to vote.

40.4% * 50% * 2 = .404 * .5 * 2 = 40.4%

[JamesP81]

Bush doesn't owe the conservatives squat.

If he'd act like a conservative, and if congress acted conservative, they wouldn't have gotten their rear ends handed to them.

I never was of the opinion, before the election, that we should toss out the R's 'just to teach them a lesson'. However, now that they are tossed...I hope they're getting it loud and clear.