Thoughts on a glum Wednesday

• Some of the new red-state Dems ran as conservatives on immigration, defense, and other issues. What will they do on the important issues?


• The GOP deserved to lose. They screwed up immigration reform, lost any semblance of fiscal responsibility, and basically suffered complete amnesia regarding the vision of Ronald Reagan.


• Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker claims she will run the House in a bi-partisan fashion - if she tries to move the Democratic caucus sharply to the Left, she'll be a major target in 2008.


• If the Democrats' primary thrusts are impeachment and cut-and-run in Iraq, they will also find a nasty surprise waiting for them in 2008. Hopefully, they can listen to the military on Iraq and continue the fight to establish a Democratic government in the region. If not, they will continue to deserve their label as "the Party of Weakness"... until the next terrorist attack on U.S. soil... or until they demonstrate a backbone on the critical issues of security confronting the country.


• The mainstream media deserves much of the credit for this win: a constant drumbeat of anti-Bush stories (160 out of 160 New York Times op-eds by Dowd, Herbert, and Rich were anti-administration). Evan Thomas of Newsweek once claimed that the media was worth around "15 (percentage) points for the Democrats." Even if the figure is three or five points, control of the vast majority of channels in the large markets could swing an otherwise even election.


• How much are the Democrats actually prepared to lead?