WHAT VOTERS SAID

Posted at 7:49 p.m. ET

Investors Business Daily, responding to the election of Barack Obama, has a thoughtful, although problematical critique of the Republican Party, and what it must do in the future:

What is also clear is that, once again, the GOP's Reagan coalition was split apart in the primaries — with Mitt Romney getting votes from free market enthusiasts and Mike Huckabee energizing religious conservatives. As a result, a "maverick" who four years ago mulled the idea of switching parties got the nomination by default, campaigning mostly on his compelling life story as hero and POW.

The Republican Party was thus re-taught a stinging lesson in 2008: Its success, as in the past, does not come from narratives that capture the people's imagination, but from ideas that work — economic freedom, caution on government solutions, principled assertiveness in foreign policy and defense of traditional values.

Do you agree with that?  I do, but only part of the way.  A narrative that captures the imagination of the people is always valuable.  Ronald Reagan understood that and used the great American narrative as one of the building blocks of his presidency.  Please recall the magnificent speech Reagan made in France on the 40th anniversary of D-Day in 1984.   You can have a great narrative and ideas that work, both at the same time.  Reagan proved that.

In the coming weeks and months, President-elect Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders will be claiming that we have just witnessed a far-reaching realignment of the political landscape. In fact, as reporter Robert Novak noted, Obama "may have opened the door to enactment of the long-deferred liberal agenda, but he neither received a broad mandate from the public nor the needed large congressional majorities."

Even experienced Democrats are warning the party not to go too far.  See our article, "Political Reality," below.  Voter surveys do not bear out the belief among some on the left that America is ready to join MoveOn.org.

As a new generation of GOP leaders resist Washington's impending dalliance with socialism and plan for 2010 and 2012, the party must also remind itself that it had a good chance to win the White House in 2008. But it blew it by choosing story over substance.

The substance was lacking, that is true.  But I think IBD - and it's rare for them - oversimplifies.  After the economic meltdown of mid-September, it's unlikely that any Republican candidate could have won.  The people blamed the party in the White House, even though the meltdown had many fathers, a number of them Democrats. 

I would have liked to have seen IBD, where good journalism still thrives, take on the additional factor of media bias, which I firmly believe was a major factor in this election, just as it was a major factor in our misunderstanding of both the Iraq and Vietnam wars. 

But IBD gives us a good start.  There was no clear message from the Republicans this year, and that certainly never helped.  

November 6, 2008.