Posted on 11/03/2004 8:09:03 AM PST by Without Barbarians
Here are the obvious things we know:
George W. Bush won the popular vote and the electoral vote. Bush is the first President-elect since 1988 to win the popular vote by a majority rather than a plurality. Clinton in 1992 and 1996 and Bush in 2000 all won with less than 50%.
Ralph Nader wasn’t a spoiler. He only won slightly more votes than the Libertarian and Constitution parties combined, which ostensibly drew votes from the Republicans.
Democrats have no popular support outside of urban areas, and no support in the South and West.
Terry McAuliffe will be summarily fired. Michael Moore, Howard Stern, and all the other political fringe loonies are irrelevant.
Here are the non-obvious things we now know:
The Cheney/Bush-41 wing of the Republican Party is finished. The authentically conservative Republicans, those against spending, government interference in citizen’s lives, etc. have become marginalized. Both parties are “big government” parties. The debate is simply over how big is “big.”
The second Bush administration must reduce the deficit, reform Social Security, and bring the troops back from Iraq by 2006 or Republicans will start to lose support in Ohio, Virginia, and Florida, which will cost them the next presidential election. This should be viewed less as a second term and more as a second chance at a first term without the chaos of 9-11 and the ensuing two wars. The way to look at this strategically is to ask what needs to be done now to win Ohio and the upper Midwest handily in 2008. In this view, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz may have to go (despite how valuable I think he is), to make way for the likes of Powell and Giuliani.
We also know that for the first time since the founding, Puritanism and northern European Protestantism are no longer the dominant religious force.....
RE: no support in the South and West.
With the exception of the coastal urban areas of Western States, making CA, OR, and WA a seemingly intractable Leftist bloc for the forseeable future.
Nooooo! If it weren't for McAuliffe, the Democrats wouldn't be where they are today (losers).
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