Media Throw a Victory Party

For all of my readers who want some stats to cut the edge off the media’s jump-for-joy celebration of the Democrats’ status quo victory last night, MB reader Brian K. sends this e-mail:

Not to minimize the recent difficulties of the President and the Republican party, but the results of the governor races in NJ and VA were about the same as they were in November 2001 when W’s approval ratings were at their highest:

Virginia

2005 Results:

Kaine (D) 51.74%

Kilgore (R) 46.01%

Potts (I) 2.17%
2001 Results:

Warner (D) 52.16%

Early (R) 47.03%

Redpath (L) 1.57%.
New Jersey

2005 Results:

Corzine (D) 54%

Forrester (R) 43%
2001 Results:

McGreevey (D) 56.2%

Schundler (R) 41.9%

The big loss was California. It was more than just a defeat for Schwarzenegger. It was the defeat of four good policy initiatives. The politics of California have totally overwhelmed the policy discussion in the aftermath. Take a look at the proposed laws. If policy were at the forefront of this discussion, it would be hard to avoid acknowledging that pure special-interest politics beat good policy. But in the news media’s defense, that’s nothing new.