Media Pushes False Narrative on 2011 Elections

If you read the papers, you would have thought the Republicans took a beating on Tuesday no less than what the Democrats suffered in the 2010 midterm elections.

EJ Dionne, always a reflection of the liberal media's thought processes:

This week's elections around the country were brought to you by the word "overreach," specifically conservative overreach. Given an opportunity in 2010 to build a long-term majority, Republicans instead pursued extreme and partisan measures. On Tuesday, they reaped angry voter rebellions.

Really? True that in Ohio, the governor's attempt to mimic what Walker had done in Wisconsin backfired on him tremendously, but was there really an "angry voter rebellion"?

Short answer - no. The Corner:

...it now looks like Republicans won control of the Mississippi house and Virginia senate on Tuesday — the first by an outright majority of 62 out of 120 house seats and the latter by achieving a 20–20 tie with Virginia’s Republican lieutenant governor tipping the balance as the presiding officer of the senate.

Going into the 2011 election cycle, there were 25 states where Republicans controlled both chambers of their legislatures, 15 states where Democrats were in power, nine states where the chambers were split or tied, and one state (Nebraska) with a nonpartisan, unicameral legislature. With the addition of Mississippi and Virginia, there are now 27 fully Republican legislatures, 15 Democratic ones, and seven splits. The last time the GOP had this much legislative power in state capitals, most motion pictures were still being produced without sound...

And that's not to mention the massive Republican sweep in my little hometown in Jersey...

Bottom line: A few high-profile losses, but more significant low-level victories.  In other words, on balance, we won, as the nation turned slightly more towards the right.  And in response, the media is trying to paint this not just as a loss, but as a backlash against our policies, when in fact the voters, overall, strengthened them by maintaining and adding to our legislative control.

But since we know Barack Obama gets all of his guidance via the opinion pagers of two newspapers, it wouldn't surprise me to see him campaigning next week on his 2011 "victories".

Good luck with that.  Take a closer look at Virginia and you'll see the president's fingerprints all over the fail...