In a word, the economy. People tend to have short memories when the economy is bad. All they know is; the economy’s bad. It must have something to do with the way government is handling it regardless of which party is in favour. Throw the bums out.
I am still doubtful that we’ll see a repeat of 1994 when the Republicans picked up a majority during the Clinton administration. The difference between then and now is all the negative publicity the GOP is generating; various personal indiscretions, the Tea Party, and the fact that it has become readily apparent that they actually have no governing ideas to offer. Yet the American people seem poised to give them back control of the country.
There must be some Republican ideals that have a broad enough appeal to bring the undecided and/or unenthusiastic to the polls. That and they can always count on the Democrats to shoot themselves in the foot.
538 Refugees 
The obvious: Obama and Dems have done a god awful job controlling the narrative ie too wishy/washy, cautious as Reps do what they do best: hate/fear/boogeyman/misinformation scorched earth politics. And Obama has reneged on too many campaign promises as the economy continues to suck!”Lead, follow or get the hell out of the way!” ~ Thomas PaineAgain and as always, America gets the govt. it deserves as most voters have the attention span/intelligence of a peanut.carry on
Hey shiloh!!I’m figuring it all out. Welcome to the site
And there is now the nagging thought in the back of my mind that should the progressives of this land have to hand back power to the regressives this fall, which admittedly could happen, what guarentee do we have that they will ever give it back when the tables turn again as they are sure to do? Now just how far are the regressives willing to go to secure this election? How much can they over step in the next 2 months? A good friend said the other day that with electronic voting Ohio has probably already voted and it was a landslide for the regressives…Just today I have seen on Fox how the Regressives are going to after the Dems if they win. I read hundreds of blog comments screaming for impeechment. The scream to dump every thing Democratic on day one is getting pretty loud……yup that should help the economy. Might also start to spook some folks. Go for it regressives tell me more. Let the American people know what the real agenda is…..Americans like a good comedy.
Just checking in on how this works. And seeing if I want to join in on the new blog. Is it possible to tie comments into whats going on at 538 and comment on specific articles there?
@ Above My Paygrade Just checking in on how this works. And seeing if I want to join in on the new blog. Is it possible to tie comments into whats going on at 538 and comment on specific articles there?Now AMP is here! This just keeps getting better and better… and the right is getting some badly-needed reinforcements.AMP… the blog is just getting started, but I think the goal is to publish regular short articles from various contributors (color and provocation from gadflies like me, and sober thoughtful stats and polling commentary from the smart people.)The plan was also to make it sort of a shadow blog so the daily threads here reflect what is being posted at the “real” 538… but comments will be real-time and unmoderated (and not always entirely on topic.)I think you’d be a valuable addition… (and probaly annoying as hell, just like always… ;-)Hope you decide to stick around.