Hugh Hewitt has the numbers:
In the 1986 election, Ronald Reagan saw the Democrats gained a net eight seats in the Senate and take control from the Republicans with a 55-45 majority. The Dems added 5 House seats to increase their majority to a 258 to 177 margin in the lower chamber. For the math challenged, that is an 81 seat majority for the Dems.
In the 1974 election, the sixth year of eight Republican presidential years, the Watergate/pardon election saw Democrats add four seats in the Senate, for a total of 60 Democrats. Democrats crushed the GOP in the House, adding picking up 49 seats for a post-election day margin of 291 to 144 --a 147 seat edge!
In the 1958 election, Ike saw the democrats add 14 senators (including two from Hawaii) for a 65-35 Democratic-GOP split. The Democrats added 48 seats in the House and controlled that body by a margin of 283 to 153. Again, math fans, that's a 130 seat edge!
Now, with some facts in hand, go back and read the Post's agenda journalism. President Bush's unique electoral record is matched only by FDR's, and FDR's Democrats lost 76 House in 1938, and six Senate seats.
The Bush-Rove political legacy is already established, and even a narrow loss of both the Senate and the House would not dent it.
Can you imagine the panic on the right if they were looking at the Democrats winning the kinds of majorities they used to carry? Pundits would be jumping out of windows.
7 comments:
Why would a pundit jump out of a window?
It's not your father's Democratic party.
loner:
I did not mean it literally. sheesh, some folks just do not have a sense of humor.
terrye—
Nothing wrong with my sense of humor.
Speaking of which, the purported Rasmussen Virginia Senate numbers are out.
Terrye:
As usual, very good historical perspective.
Isn't it interesting that Reagan, Eisenhower and Roosevelt all had high approval ratings in the years you described, and "no coat tails".
Nixon, of course, was disgraced and Ford made enemies with the Nixon pardon.
I will be interested in how much the coordinated "national" message of the DNC and MSM (that Bush is "crippled" by the public's disenchantment with Iraq the bungled war on terror, and it's again time for a change) will effect congressional control.
Will the public respond to Rove's strategy or that of the DNC/MSM?
loner:
I have my doubts about some of the polls, but we will find out.
That Rasmussen poll in VA is an outlier for that state. Is there one other poll showoing Webb ahead?
terrye—
Yes.
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