John Podhoretz On Why We Lost

Trying to make sense of a Podhoretz article can be quite impossible. Yes, Rove miscalculated the size, power, and temperment of independant voters, but "winning" in Iraq didn't drive them to the left. The constant media bombardment that we were losing and losing badly is what made the wish-washy clan decide to cut and run.

We've been in Germany for 60 years. Same with Japan. Where was "The Plan" back then? Why, after only several years, is Iraq suddenly a huge loss?

Because the talking heads say so, that's why. This is the instant-gratification America that wants to know, and know NOW, where we are heading. The Bush Administration burrowed deeply under an all encompassing blanket of secrecy, and secrecy is important when it comes to confounding the enemy, but the Home Front needs assurances.

The fence-striders didn't get theirs. And voted for the Democrats. Instead of taking his case to the people, as Reagan often did, Bush felt that enough of them would understand, all by their lonesome.

"For decades, Americans whose lives did not revolve around politics believed that Democrats were trying to use politics to revise the rules of society - to force America to "evolve" in a Left-liberal direction.

They didn't like the bossiness implied by this attitude and they were appalled by the unintended consequences of the changes instituted by left-liberals, mainly when it came to confiscatory tax policy and the refusal to maintain social order and safe streets. These consequences were marks of profound incompetence in the management of the country, and the Democrats were punished for it.

But over in the past few years, Americans began to get the sense that Republicans had become the party of social revision - that it had allowed its own ideological predilections to run riot and that a new form of political correctness had overtaken the party that had seemed more sensible and more in line with their way of thinking.

And, of course, there was and is Iraq. On all sides, partisans are trying to make the case that the election didn't revolve around Iraq. But it did, at least in this sense: Can anyone doubt that if we had won in Iraq in 2005, Republicans would have strengthened their hold on Congress in 2006 rather than losing both Houses? That voters would have rewarded the party of George W. Bush rather than delivering the "thumpin'" of a lifetime?"