40% approved of the GOP Congress since taking over in 1995.

56% disapproved.

In particular, Americans overwhelmingly think they finished very poorly.

13% approved of their performance in the last year.

85% disapproved.

What this tells us is that the GOP Congress was somewhat better liked (still only 40% overall) when they were far less powerful in the early years. Years of unchecked corruption, reckless fiscal management that has ballooned the deficit (signed on by Bush) attempts to dismantle Social Security, cronyism, "stay the course" mentality in Iraq and flat out incompetence doomed them.

http://www.pollingreport.com/congress.htm#misc

Iraq was down the list in Exit polling about what was most important to the voters this time.

Number 1 was corruption.
Number 2 was terrorism.
Number 3 was the Economy (Puzzling since it's great)
Number 4 was Iraq

So, this vote wasn't about Iraq. And it wasn't FOR Democrats. It was about Republicans losing their way and abandoning their conversatism. Even Ralph Emanuel was smart enough to go out and hand pick conservative Democrats to run against vunerable Republicans. And that's how they won. Now, they will either have to govern that way or they will be booted out. If Nancy Pelosi and Dem leaders try to govern based on liberalism, they will fail and will last only 24 months.

__________________
"This is a time for a national imperative not to fail in Iraq." Condoleeza Rice, January 11, 2007

I'm assuming the exit poll data is based on votes from both sides. If you split it up, I think you'd see Iraq and corruption on the minds of Democrats followed by perhaps the economy. Overwhelmingly, Republicans would have probably chosen terrorism, since they've caved to the fear mongering for too long and buy the nonsense about Iraq always being part of the war on terror. Republicans, wanting to forget about the Iraq debacle, probably rated it last by far. Who would vote Republican based on Iraq?

Both sides probably put the economy in the middle of the list. While some indicators are good (unemployment is within 0.5% of the low reached in the late 90's), others are not. GDP has sagged the last 2 quarters (1.6% last quarter). Accumulated inflation this year is the highest since 1991. Real median income is stagnant, after strong increases in the 90's, which is a reason why you see Democrats rating the economy low.

Dems ran a variety of candidates. Let's examine the Senate. Only Casey is a clear conservative leaner, but he replaces arguably the most far-right loon in the Senate. Webb would be next in line, as a former Reagan guy. He's a Richard Clarke type, with strong anti-Iraq-war beliefs but many conservative values. Tester is a rural liberal - supports gun rights but liberal on every other issue. McCaskill, Brown, and Whitehouse are all fine liberal Senator-elects.

To use an analogy Macaca Allen is familiar with, Republicans fumbled in the red zone, no doubt. But Democrats didn't settle for a field goal. They punched it in 3 plays later on a sweep to the left.