Rich, this is not my area, but I bet it would be interesting to compare how competitive congressional races were circa 1978-1984 with how competitive (or, better, non-competitive) they are now – post redistrictings, McCain-Feingold, and sundry measures of incumbent protection.

As I say, I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I wonder if the seeming lack of concern over the present malaise (another Carter era word!) is attributable to combination that is historically unusual, to wit: (a) a president and vice president who are not facing any more elections, (b) members of congress – with some exceptions – not feeling very challenged electorally, and (c) a sense that, to the extent they are thinking about 2008 at all, Republicans believe that the Democratic nominee – especially if it’s Hillary – assures them of close to 50 percent of the national vote no matter how poorly they perform?