In Colorado, Republicans won a one-seat House majority by 197 votes, or 0.8 percent of the 25,279 votes cast in HD-29. In Washington, Republicans won a majority in Congress by roughly 250,000 votes or 0.3 percent of the 75 million votes cast.
Nationally, Republicans won a lot of seats. Yet the pivotal 26 seats that decide majority and minority status in Congress were won by very narrow margins, many of them by low four-figure vote totals and, as a whole, by an average of only 8,192 votes.
A win is a win of course but the vote totals suggest the political reality in the United States is different than the picture blustery pundits have been drawing over the past two weeks. The ballot box totals suggest American voters remain almost evenly split in their choosing between Republican and Democratic politicians.
But it is interesting how much a whisker thin majority in the state legislature and Congress get you. You party gets to be the chairman and the majority on committees and you determine what gets voted on.
But I do have to agree with the OP, while the GOP did make significant gains, they also had dug themselves a major hole in 2006 and 2008.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
Any comparisons available for how thin or fat the majority was when the Democrats won the seats that they lost this time around? I thought not. Just more propaganda aimed towards minimizing the drubbing that the Democrats took earlier this month and the huge hit the Obama/Reid/Pelosi progressive agenda took as a result of their abusing their power to contravene the desires of the majority of their constituents and the citizens nationwide.
The good news is that there is a larger majority of Democrats up for election in the Senate in 2012 than there was in 2010. 2 strong years of a return to the republican principles might bring a Republican majority to both houses of Congress even if Obama happens to somehow secure a second term. That does not mean, however, that I want to see the Republicans back in control of the Oval Office and both houses of Congress. Bad things happen with such a concentration of power regardless of which party happens to enjoy the concentration.
As the title of a recent book proclaims, Power Divided is Power Checked.
PrintSmith wrote: 2 strong years of a return to the republican principles might bring a Republican majority to both houses of Congress
Therein lies the rub.
Who knows how effective the Republican leadership will be in two years?
Who knows what the economy will be like in two years?
Who knows how willing voters will be to support candidates who want to trash health reform after formally uninsured families get a taste of coverage for two years?
Who knows what world events our nation will become involved in, including the two theaters we are currently operating in, in two years?
Who knows who will end up as the opposition candidates running against the incumbent in 2012?
Who knows if the Tea Party can even sustain itself or be effective at prompting a change beyond feel good rhetoric?
Who knows what the attitude of the electorate will be in two years?
Anyone who claims to know is guessing or boasting, colored by their own biases.
Pineguy wrote: Who knows how willing voters will be to support candidates who want to trash health reform after formally uninsured families get a taste of coverage for two years?
Uh, I'm confused. When does Obamacare kick in? When does the tax for this non-care kick in?