The results of the elections show conclusively that the American populace is made up of a large swath of moderate centrists. I'm happy that the Democratic majority in the Senate is small. I am happy that Joe Lieberman will keep the party in check. The voters only swing the pendulum insofar as a correction to the center is warranted. The voters did not vote for a radical 'left' agenda, but in response to a Republican party out of control and drunk on it's own power. True, the voters do not respond well to corruption, but they seem to tolerate corruption generally if it is the handmaiden of competence, and this is where the Republicans lost the voters.
This vote had as much to do with Katrina and Terry Schiavo as it did Iraq and Foley. It is still an axiom of American independence that most American agree with Paine - "That government is best which governs least." That having been said, the electorate rightly expects the government to step in in times of crisis, and to otherwise keep itself out of our lives generally.
When the government bungled the Katrina disaster, it was largely because they were slow to act and respond. The absence of the President was felt viscerally. Contrast this with the president flying back to deal with the Schiavo case and you see the problem.
That leads me to the sad conclusion that the Pelosi is leading the Democrats down the same broken path. Her seeming insistence on supporting candidates with questionable ethics over competent leaders with greater abilities (Murtha and Hastings over Hoyer and Harman) does not bode well for her parties chances of staying in power. The further realization that her motives are highly questionable fuel the fire.
