The GOP is losing voters

Having given American voters a failed economy, two endless wars, record oil prices, huge deficits, the Katrina debacle and no plan for the environment, George Bush is leaving one other gift to the Republican party: More Democrats and fewer Republicans. In some key states, the changes have been quite stunning:

In several states, including the traditional battlegrounds of Nevada and Iowa, Democrats have surprised their own party officials with significant gains in registration. In both of those states, there are now more registered Democrats than Republicans, a flip from 2004. No states have switched to the Republicans over the same period, according to data from 26 of the 29 states in which voters register by party. (Three of the states did not have complete data.)

In six states, including Iowa, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, the Democratic piece of the registration pie grew more than three percentage points, while the Republican share declined. In only three states — Kentucky, Louisiana and Oklahoma — did Republican registration rise while Democratic registration fell, but the Republican increase was less than a percentage point in Kentucky and Oklahoma. Louisiana was the only state to register a gain of more than one percentage point for Republicans as Democratic numbers declined.

This is particularly helpful in state and local elections. That's where a lot of the action on progressive policy is actually taking place -- and, after the 2010 elections, state legislature's will begin re-districting.

Remember how Karl Rove said he was going to re-shape the Republican party for decades to come -- and how all the D.C. pundits believed every word he said? Remember that? (Link is to NY Times archive article):

Victory may have a thousand fathers, but if President Bush's triumph this week had a Big Daddy it was indisputably Karl Rove - the seer, strategist and serious student of politics and the presidency that a grateful Mr. Bush himself referred to as the architect of his winning campaign.

And with Mr. Bush's re-election, Mr. Rove has not only cemented his reputation as one of the canniest campaign gurus in a generation but has also put himself in position to shape second-term policies that could help realize his longtime goal of consolidating a broad Republican electoral majority for a generation to come.

Well, Rove did it. Not quite the way he planned, but he did.