Democrats won the popular vote for the Senate by 12.6%, or 55.0%--42.6%.
From the Huffington Post:
Look how easily the media manipulates everyone's perceptions, including our own. An hour of vote tabulation reveals a stunning fact: Democrats won the popular vote for the Senate by an overwhelming 11.6% margin - 55%/42.4%. "Bipartisanship" and "compromise" are today's buzzwords, when the phrase on everybody's lips should be "mandate for dramatic change" - especially in Iraq.
The thing is,
Democrats had actually won the Senate popular vote for the 55-42-2 Senate, so it isn't surprising that we have a huge popular mandate when we took control.
Simultaneous to the Democratic popularity wave,
Bush's numbers have crashed:
President George W. Bush's response was swift and decisive--if a little late. After voters gave Republicans "a thumpin'" at the polls, handing Democrats control of both houses of Congress, Bush banished his contentious defense secretary; invited the presumptive leaders of the new House and Senate to lunch (would-be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had pasta; the president ate crow, a Bush aide joked); and suffered through two pained photo-ops with Pelosi and Harry Reid, the Nevada Senator expected to become Majority Leader. And what did the president get for listening to the voice of the American people? The worst approval rating of his presidency.
President Bush's job approval rating has fallen to just 31 percent, according to the new NEWSWEEK Poll.
I'm not sure why MSNBC decided to write this article as though the voters are being unfair to Bush, but it doesn't change the numbers. Oh wait--I know why MSNBC decided to write this article as though the voters are being unfair to Bush. Sorry about the lapse in memory and judgment.
That Democrats are only ahead 51-49 in the Senate despite a crushing popular vote victory, and that major new outlets are still presenting voters as whining, ungrateful plebs who don't understand the bi-partisan outreach of our Dear Leader, shows just how much work we still have to do in order to dismantle the levers of power Republicans have used to maintain a 50%+1 majority for so long.
