Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Media "How did this happen?"

Last night on a number of analysis panels (MSNBC, CNN, Fox, etc), the question came up with great frequency: "What's going on with the Democratic Party? Why don't they get it?"

This year was pretty clear from a Presidential candidate - they didn't have one that STOOD for anything. The theme of this candidate's campaign was, "Bush is wrong", but little substance on why "I'm right".

The other area of angst among the panels was the 'morals' and 'values' issue that came through in the results. They trumped personal economic needs which the Democrats relied on in '92 - "it's the economy stupid". They also didn't understand the 'tie' into security and the war on terror. These are moral issues as well as security issues. In addition, to my point above, Americans respect someone who believes in something - even if they don't necessarily agree with them.

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