5. Media Matters:
George Bush has long neglected the national media because he thought it was giving him a raw deal. Republicans hurt themselves by not fighting Democratic ideas through the media. Instead of participating in debate, Republicans conceded. Extremely poor strategy. If Republicans want to make instant gains, they'll need to start earning a positive light in the media.
4. Ballot Initiatives Don't Fool Voters:
Although many states nation-wide had issues certain to bring evangelicals and the religious right to the polls, those typically Republican voters didn't seem to be drinking the Kool-Aid being sold by Rush and Sean Hannity. Typically Republican issues still passed by decent margins, but Conservatives did a lot of voting for issues and simply leaving the Republicans off their ballots.
In Wisconsin, there was an extremely sleazy attempt to confuse voters into voting down a strongly supported ban on gay marriage. Despite the attempts to characterize a "no" vote as being a "yes" vote, Wisconsin voters still overwhelmingly supported the ban on gay marriage. Tricky adds and bad advertising will not help any given party's case. Don't expect it to go away though.
3. Corruption Kills:
While both parties have had their problems in the corruption department, it definitely works out that whichever party has the closest-to-election-time slew of scandals usually does the worst in the elections. In 2000, 2002, and 2004, Democrats were stung with late scandals, and were hurt at the polls. In 2006, Republicans got hit with a wave of scandals that didn't seem to go away. While the perception is currently that Republicans are the corrupt party, that could easily change by 2008. Keep your nose clean, and you'll win.
2. Wars Ought Not Become Vietnams
Everyone (well, statistically almost everyone) wanted Bush to invade Iraq. All the Democrats supported it too. What people weren't banking on, was Bush, a military-loving-Texan, to bog the troops down in an occupation of Iraq. People would've been much more forgiving if Bush had devastated the region, pulled out, allowed internal chaos, but avoiding U.S. casualties. Don't sit and occupy a land and let the best of the best die for something so asinine.
1. The United States is Not Liberal
How can I say this? Republicans didn't take a single Democrat seat in the 2006 election. Obviously the United States has become liberal in the last 2 years, right? Wrong. A close examination of the ballot measures in states showed that while Democrats were winning elections, their ideologies were losing referendums. People simply do not support the platform of the Democratic Party. On the other hand, they simply do not trust the Republicans to do anything right or by the book. Corruption kills, but Democrats need to do more than simply win because people don't like corrupt Republicans. They need to claim some of the values that middle America has, or they risk having the reverse of 2006 happen in 2008 or 2010.
George Bush has long neglected the national media because he thought it was giving him a raw deal. Republicans hurt themselves by not fighting Democratic ideas through the media. Instead of participating in debate, Republicans conceded. Extremely poor strategy. If Republicans want to make instant gains, they'll need to start earning a positive light in the media.
4. Ballot Initiatives Don't Fool Voters:
Although many states nation-wide had issues certain to bring evangelicals and the religious right to the polls, those typically Republican voters didn't seem to be drinking the Kool-Aid being sold by Rush and Sean Hannity. Typically Republican issues still passed by decent margins, but Conservatives did a lot of voting for issues and simply leaving the Republicans off their ballots.
In Wisconsin, there was an extremely sleazy attempt to confuse voters into voting down a strongly supported ban on gay marriage. Despite the attempts to characterize a "no" vote as being a "yes" vote, Wisconsin voters still overwhelmingly supported the ban on gay marriage. Tricky adds and bad advertising will not help any given party's case. Don't expect it to go away though.
3. Corruption Kills:
While both parties have had their problems in the corruption department, it definitely works out that whichever party has the closest-to-election-time slew of scandals usually does the worst in the elections. In 2000, 2002, and 2004, Democrats were stung with late scandals, and were hurt at the polls. In 2006, Republicans got hit with a wave of scandals that didn't seem to go away. While the perception is currently that Republicans are the corrupt party, that could easily change by 2008. Keep your nose clean, and you'll win.
2. Wars Ought Not Become Vietnams
Everyone (well, statistically almost everyone) wanted Bush to invade Iraq. All the Democrats supported it too. What people weren't banking on, was Bush, a military-loving-Texan, to bog the troops down in an occupation of Iraq. People would've been much more forgiving if Bush had devastated the region, pulled out, allowed internal chaos, but avoiding U.S. casualties. Don't sit and occupy a land and let the best of the best die for something so asinine.
1. The United States is Not Liberal
How can I say this? Republicans didn't take a single Democrat seat in the 2006 election. Obviously the United States has become liberal in the last 2 years, right? Wrong. A close examination of the ballot measures in states showed that while Democrats were winning elections, their ideologies were losing referendums. People simply do not support the platform of the Democratic Party. On the other hand, they simply do not trust the Republicans to do anything right or by the book. Corruption kills, but Democrats need to do more than simply win because people don't like corrupt Republicans. They need to claim some of the values that middle America has, or they risk having the reverse of 2006 happen in 2008 or 2010.
