# Weird democratic post-election comment on NPR **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 8, 2002, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-democratic-post-election-comment-on-npr/135939 "2002-11-08T21:26:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tejota](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Tejota](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tejota)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-democratic-post-election-comment-on-npr/135939/21 "2002-11-10T03:38:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by emarkp \* > \*\*So **minty** the historical trend of the President’s party losing congressional seats in the first midterm election is irrelevant? The Dems lost big compared to what historical trends suggested would happen. \*\* No, the historical trend is the party that _won the presidential election_ looses congressional seats at the mid-term. And that’s exactly what happened. I our case, the winner of the election (as measured by votes cast) is not the current president. To understand why, you need to look at _why_ there is typically a loss in the midterm, and the reason is **coattails**. Which is the effect whereby peopole who go to the polls intending to vote for a particular party, also end up voting for other members of his party who they don’t really know. This tends to sweep in weak candidats who then loose the next election. But coattails don’t pay any attention to the electoral college, they are based strictly on the total votes cast. And since Gore won the popular vote, he could be expected to have more coattails then Bush (neither would have much). ---
**Author:** ![Tejota](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Tejota](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tejota)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-democratic-post-election-comment-on-npr/135939/22 "2002-11-10T03:48:16Z")
ugh. Make that “Intending to vote for a particular **president** , and end up voting for other…” ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-democratic-post-election-comment-on-npr/135939/23 "2002-11-10T04:13:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elucidator \* > \*\*Quite my point, in an obtuse sort of way. Same promises, every election. Same non-results. Twenty years, and counting. And it gets narrower all the time. Without the “Jews for Buchanan” fiasco in Florida, Al Gore would be occupying the Oval Office, this is historical fact. As much as you might like to pretend that America has delivered an unalloyed mandate to the Bushistas, the numbers don’t add up that way. \*\* So we’ve gone from “the Jesus Right will turn on the Republicans like mad wolverines” to “happens all the time with no consequence” in a couple of posts. Dig it. The Republicans won. That’s as “unalloyed” as it gets in American politics. Al Gore’s fantasies of what might have been are hardly historical fact. The problem is that the Dems have the “too dumb to punch a hole in a piece of paper” vote sewed up, and it did them no more good in 2000 as it did on Tuesday. Every time I sign on here, I get reassured. Liberals have no clue on why they lost. So I can expect more of the same in 2004. Kewl. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-democratic-post-election-comment-on-npr/135939/24 "2002-11-10T04:17:25Z")
Cartman? Is that you? ---
**Author:** ![alaricthegoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-democratic-post-election-comment-on-npr/135939/25 "2002-11-10T14:45:15Z")
the election was an unalloyed disaster because those two senate votes add up to control of the committees- -ie, no inconvenient subpoenas issuing to uncover the actual dimensions of the intelligence fiasco, the harken fiasco {see thread, this board) and, most of all, no tough questions for judicial appointees–who, as we now know, are in line to become the REAL electoral college. It don’t get no worse than that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-democratic-post-election-comment-on-npr/135939.md?page=1)