[Diddle E. Squat]

No, not smashed to death, just beat in this round.

Strategically Bush pulled off an incredible victory, but these were close races, not mandates. In fact I am convinced that with better candidates and better campaign strategy the Dems could have picked up a couple of seats(or more) in the Senate, instead of losing what appears to be a clean sweep in the Senate(they didn't beat Hutchinson, he beat himself and too many conservatives abandoned him). While maybe not the WH, the Dems could win back seats in both chambers in '04. Hopefully they won't figure out how, but we still have quite the uphill battle.

But Rove and Bush have proven they know how to methodically win the tough battles. A great evening tonight, and I am confident that they can now move forward and continue to reshape public perception of the GOP and conservatives.

[Howlin]

Bill Clinton campaigned in 24 races. Two of them won. ALL the ones SHE campaigned in lost; to all the other Democrats, this is going to look like McAuliffe blew this election and Gore is going to make a HUGE move to take back the party.

I cannot imagine that the rest of the DNC is pleased today, since Clinton's big thing is that THEY, the DNC, haven't been promoting HIS agenda since he left office.

Perhaps somebody at the DNC will tell him he's a former president -- finally -- and tell him to go play some golf instead of ruining their party.

Tonight's DNC loss can be laid squarely on HIS and McAuliffe's shoulders.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. :-)

[Timesink]

Strategically Bush pulled off an incredible victory, but these were close races, not mandates.

The Clinton Administration openly claimed a mandate for the entirety of both his terms, when he never even won 50% of the vote.

Whoever is in power has the mandate, period. The only question is whether they have the balls to use it.