I came across these numbers when I was working on my novel, and I never had a chance to post them. This kind of thing is exactly what I like to put into the category of Media Morons. It just fits:
In the midst of the MSM’s chorus about how two gubernatorial races portend some sort of an upcoming “disaster” for Republicans, the RCP Blog has some interesting statistics for us:
2001 Virginia: [tag]Warner[/tag] (D) 52%, [tag]Earley[/tag] (R) 47%
2005 Virginia: [tag]Kaine[/tag] (D) 52%, [tag]Kilgore[/tag] (R) 46%2001 New Jersey: [tag]McGreevey[/tag] (D) 56%, [tag]Schundler[/tag] (R) 42%
2005 New Jersey: [tag]Corzine[/tag] (D) 53%, [tag]Forrester[/tag] (R) 44%Democrat governors were elected in [tag]Virginia[/tag] and [tag]New Jersey[/tag] by the same percentage of the vote in 2001 and 2005. [tag]Bush[/tag]‘s approval rating in 2001 was 85 percent. Bush’s approval rating today is 38 percent. He couldn’t win those races for Republicans in 2001, and wasn’t the reason they lost them yesterday.
Notice, by the way, the Media Morons are still talking about the grand Republican losses in this election. Completely setting aside Republican Michael [tag]Bloomberg[/tag]‘s massive landslide in New York City (where Democrats outnumber Republicans 5:1), does anyone remember the gloom and doom predictions for the Democratic party in 2004 when they lost so many governorships, lost the majority in the Senate, and solidified the majority in the House?
I don’t remember it at all. The story wasn’t Democrat losses, at that time, it was how American voters were fooled.
You know it’s bad when the best thing you can say about a party is that they won a strongly Democratic state (New Jersey) and a state where the Democrat incumbent was re-elected, and by a mere 6 points.
Wow.
[tags]Elections[/tags]
Bruising.