What Went Wrong ? The Election of 2006

The result of this midterm election makes me very fearful of the future for my children and my grandchildren. To me, the overriding issue of our time is Islamic terrorism. The Democrats have shown that they haven't a clue. Why didn’t most voters agree?

HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF.The average sixth-year midterm election, like this year, is much worse for the president's party, which typically loses 34 seats in the House and six seats in the Senate. the Democrats picked up about 30 House seats and five to six Senate seats in a sixth-year election, with lots of seats still too close to call.

DISMAY OVER THE VIOLENCE IN IRAQ. Although President Bush made it clear over and over again that the War on Terror would be a long, tough struggle, and that the center of that war is in Iraq, we are inundated every day with bad news while progress is ignored. We have short memories, and most American voters have little knowledge of history or historical relationships. The sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shia there is disheartening; it overwhelms news about the good things happening there; and it overwhelms any sense of progress there.

BUSH HATRED. When George Bush countered the attempt to steal Florida in 2000, he generated a hatred beyond all reason. All we have heard for years is “selected, not elected” and “Bush lied, people died”. I think as the war dragged on and the sectarian violence escalated, the war weariness has exasperated this hatred, and the point below about the mainstream press using their communication resources has also magnified it. I hear people all the time referring to Bush 43, Cheney and Rumsfeld as ‘criminals’. They are not criminals; they are decent, patriotic and talented men.

THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA DESTROYED REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. “A new study by the non-partisan Center for Media and Public Affairs in Washington, D.C., analyzed midterm election coverage on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts between September 5 and October 22. The study found during these seven key weeks following Labor Day, 167 such stories were broadcast. These big three network gave Democratic candidates coverage that was 77 percent positive.

Republican candidates got the opposite – coverage that was 88 percent negative.

This year it has become difficult to tell where partisan Democratic press releases end and news coverage by mainstream journalists begins. They sound identical, as if fabricated in the same Left wing propaganda factory.

A 2005 University of California Los Angeles-led study found that 18 of the nation's top 20 media outlets skewed their news coverage significantly to the Left.

"I suspected that many media outlets would tilt to the left because surveys have shown that reporters tend to vote more Democrat than Republican," said UCLA political scientist Tim Groseclose, the study's lead author. "But I was surprised at just how pronounced the distinctions are."” Newsmax.com

Although we now have Fox News, the internet and talk radio to give some balance, when the mainstream media decides to destroy a candidate or an administration, it is almost impossible to fight them.

THE GANG THAT COULDN’T SHOOT STRAIGHT. Republican majorities in both chambers always seem to be working at cross purposes and never able to reach a clear objective. Unlike Democrats, who always seem to be working off the same page, battles between RINO Republicans and Republicans at different points on the liberal to conservative spectrum always seem to take center stage. Nowhere was this more noticeable and more frustrating to conservatives than on immigration policy. It’s ironic that I thought the Trent Lott lynching would at least result in better leadership from Senator Frist. I was wrong.

THE TERRI SCHIAVO CASE. The attempt by Republican leaders in the Senate and by President Bush to interject the federal government into a case most reasonable people thought was best handled as a family matter in state probate court scared and shocked many people, including me.

CONSERVATIVES STAYED HOME. I haven’t seen the numbers yet, but it’s hard to believe that conservatives would vote Democrat because they are angry about spending, corruption or morality. I think it much more likely that some of them just stayed home.