All told, 56 percent of Americans voted for a House Democrat whereas only 52 percent voted for a Republican in 1994. That’s a larger majority than Obama got and, indeed, would have been considered a pretty crushing landslide on the presidential label.Before I read this, I definitely thought house Dems did well, picking up seats for second straight cycle which is rare, but not as bone crushingly well as I would have hoped given the overall political contex.
What is even weirder about house races going well is that public approval ratings for congress are very low.
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Well, I think the description that House Dem elections were a little disappointing was based on
* that they were polling a little better in the weeks before the election than they performed on election day, and
* for the most part, they didn't take the popular vote hit of being black, which has been estimated as being as much as 6% points. To understand properly how impressive Obama's victory is, you have to realize he accomplished this margin of victory in spite of the up front deduction he earned by being black. This ins't the Bradley effect - people saying they'll vote for the black candidate but then not voting for him, which evidently doesn't exist - this is people saying upfront they won't vote for the black candidate.
So from that perspective, you'd expect the mostly pasty House Dems to well outpace Obama. And they didn't really.
Having said all that, I'm still quite pleased with the election. If Pelosi can keep the Blue Dogs in line, we might actually rescue this country.
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