LAT: GOP Can Win in '06 by Limiting Losses

[DeepModem Mom]

GOP Can Win by Limiting Losses
Voters may want change in Washington, but the clout incumbents wield may impede Democrats.
By Ronald Brownstein and Janet Hook, Times Staff Writers
May 8, 2006


WASHINGTON — In this year's midterm election, control of Congress may turn on whether the public's clear desire for change is powerful enough to overcome the resistance to change built into the political system.

Discontent with the nation's direction and the federal government's performance is virtually screaming from public opinion surveys, which show approval ratings for President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress falling to their lowest levels.

On many measures, Bush and the GOP are facing at least as much dissatisfaction as Democrats and President Clinton did just before the 1994 midterm landslide that swept Republicans into control of the House and Senate.

But today's wave of dissatisfaction is crashing into a political structure that is much more stable than in 1994. It now is tougher to beat House incumbents or to win Senate seats in states that usually back the other party in presidential elections.

This year "is going to be a real test to see what happens when you get a fairly strong political tide coming up against this very rigidified system," said Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Atlanta's Emory University....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-midterm8may08,0,4712129.story?coll=la-home-nation

[Atman]

1. Here we go! Gentlemen, start your Diebolds!

:eyes:

[Zorra]

4. Yep. Diebold = "rigidified system".

[DBoon]

5. Don't forget mid-decade redistricting

If fixed machines won't do it, good old fashioned gerrymandering will

[LSparkle]

2. God I wish David Geffen would buy the L.A. Times

so I don't have to read about them giving Asshat and his gang hope ...

[Lerkfish]

3. I love how they assume losing repub seats is a threat?

why are these stories always written as strategy pointers for the GOP?