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Why Did Kerry Lose?

James Q Wilson in the WSJ [1] this morning, confirms somehting I’ve been saying all along; The re-election of George W. Bush doesn’t makr a move to the right on the part of the voters, but rather, it marks a move to the far left by the Democrats.

And he notes something interesting.. something I’d not fully considered, but will, now.

“What is most impressive about this election has been the extraordinary success both parties have had in registering new voters and getting them to the polls. Suppose the Democrats had done this better than the GOP. The result might well have been a Bush loss in Florida and Ohio, and thus the loss of the election. Our press would now be running columns about the liberal shift in public opinion, the defeat of fundamentalists, and the importance of antiwar sentiments.”

The big chatter among both sides was that a large influx of new voters would swing the majority to the Deaniacs. The press, apparently, was counting on this to a large degree as was the DNC. I wonder if we wil see, in the off year cycle, or for that matter in the next presidential election, the same level of ‘get out the vote’ from the Democrats?  As a knee-jerk reaction, I tend to think not, but that will depend on what their research tells them, and what they trust of that research.