I'm with you, PKM. Rove played *not-to-lose* in '04, rather than pressing to increase the majority for Bush and Republicans. In this election cycle, he played *don't-lose-too-much* rather than coming up with a positive vision and message. A GOP win in '06 could have driven a final nail into the national Democrat Party, but instead we gave them new life. Maybe the national GOP is somewhat exhausted, and needs new blood. I have found it a bit disturbing, though, that over the past two years I've seen some folks here on FR who were better able to defend the President's policies than the White House has been able to do.
If you have noticed under recently, I have done very little posting defending the WH on here except occasionally. You are so right about how they played 2004 and 2006 elections and I would love to know why.