Hand-Wringing at the Times
The stress may be starting to get to the Democrats. Adam Nogourney, one of the New York Times's reliably liberal reporters, worries: For Democrats, Even a Gain May Feel Like a Failure:
In most midterm elections, an out-of-power party picking up, say, 14 seats in the House and five seats in the Senate could call it a pretty good night.
Not really; certainly not as to the House.
But for Democrats in 2006, that showing would mean coming up one seat shy of taking control of both the Senate and the House. And it would probably be branded a loss — in the case of the House, a big one.For a combination of reasons — increasingly bullish prognostications by independent handicappers, galloping optimism by Democratic leaders and bloggers, and polls that promise a Democratic blowout — expectations for the party have soared into the stratosphere.
These expectations may well be overheated.***Some Democrats worry that those forecasts, accurate or not, may be setting the stage for a demoralizing election night, and one with lasting ramifications, sapping the party’s spirit and energy heading into the 2008 presidential election cycle.
Well, let's hope so. Who do you suppose is responsible for those inflated expectations, which the Times itself has been relentlessly pumping up for weeks? It just might be the evil Karl Rove!
Republicans, of course, may have decided that they have a Machiavellian interest in setting up Democrats with inflated expectations.
We'll know, I guess, soon enough. But no matter what happens today, I hope the most extreme prediction doesn't come true, should the Dems be disappointed:
Mr. Cook put it more succinctly. “I think you’d see a Jim Jones situation — it would be a mass suicide,” he said.
