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The closeness of the defeats show that despite the GOP's poor handling of many things, we still were in those races. The bottom line is that incumbent Reps lost to the Dem challengers and no incumbent Dem lost. Many House seats were in Conservative districts like Foley's and Delays and will go back to being Republican. No, many were in either Dem areas or split districts and will never be coming back. We have a good shot at recapturing the Delay and Foley districts, but we will be hard pressed to hang on to what is remaining in places like CT and NY. It took us 40 years to get control of the House and 12 years for the Dems to regain it. You just don't flip the results again in the following election. It could be decades before we get back the House. We need to find worthy challengers to the Dem incumbents.

It has taken us 40 years because the nation has gradually become more conservative as a whole.

That is why the Democrats had to run to our right.

During those 40 years we were far away from retaking the House, but now we are much closer, maybe just 15-20 seats.

Yes, we need better candidates, but this election was not pro-Democrat, it was anti-Republican incumbent.

The Democrats had to run as Republicans to win, and we need to be more Republican then they pretend to be./i> Agree. Next time they will have voting records, which they will have to defend. Still, being an incumbent gives you a distinct advantage.

Yes, it does, but sometimes it can work against you as well.

Many of those Democrats elected were elected as moderate Republicans and are going to have vote as such.

If they start voting for tax hikes, gun control and anti-military, their majority status will be shortlived.

It has taken us 40 years because the nation has gradually become more conservative as a whole.

The nation was always more conservative than the Dem Party as a whole. The Democrat Party moved more to the Left in the 1960s with the disaffection of the Southern Democrats who comprised the conservative wing of the party. Many became Reps.

That is why the Democrats had to run to our right.

The Dems did not run to our right, they just mirrored many of the Rep positions on value issues. The Dems also recruited many candidates with military backgrounds to change their image.

During those 40 years we were far away from retaking the House, but now we are much closer, maybe just 15-20 seats.

LOL. We had the House for 12 years. We are not much closer to taking it over now. Who is to say that we will not fall even further behind in 2008? We not only must hold on to the seats we have, but also, try to gain new ones. We need to come up with some stong candidates to challenge the Dems district by district. The Dems did not lose one incumbent.

Many of those Democrats elected were elected as moderate Republicans and are going to have vote as such. If they start voting for tax hikes, gun control and anti-military, their majority status will be shortlived.

For the next two years, the Dems will control the agenda in Congress. They will make sure that tax hikes, gun control, and anti-military issues are not on the agenda. One of the big issues they say they will now tackle is AMT, which will mean less taxes. They will increase the minimum wage. I see the Dems trying to consolidate their gains while at the same time detailing the "corruption" and missteps of the Administation using investigations and press leaks. The Dems are used to weilding power and not bashful about using it.