Another casualty of the war in Iraq -- even though our economy is humming along pretty well, the war in Iraq clearly took the President's eyes off of his broader agenda and cost him political capital that wasn't available to use for other initiatives. You can agree or disagree with that agenda, but ultimately, the worse thing you see in polls this election season is that no one can think of anything that Congress -- led by Republicans -- has done lately. The only bright spot for the Republicans is that now Nancy Pelosi will have two years (before the 2008 Presidential elections) to remind the country why it shouldn't want Democrats runnning the country, no matter how flawed the Republicans are.
In the article below, according to Fred Barnes in the Journal this morning, "Republicans face the prospect of losing a substantial number of Senate and House seats in the midterm election tomorrow, but it didn't have to be that way. For sure, the war in Iraq was always going to be a drag on Republicans. And an election in the sixth year of a presidency is often perilous for the president's party, a pattern that's held true in year six of the Bush era.
But Republicans have made matters worse by abandoning the reform agenda that animated their capture of Congress in 1994 and helped George Bush win the White House in 2000 and keep it in 2004. With scarcely a fight, Republicans gave up on Social Security reform in 2005, immigration reform in 2006, and never really got started on tax reform. Mr. Bush also cast aside the overarching theme for his domestic policy -- the Ownership Society -- without an explanation."
'It Didn't Have to Be That Way' - WSJ.com
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