Why did the Republicans fail to win the Senate?

[usregimechange]

What is wrong with the Republican party that they would fail to win the Senate?

[TheKentuckian]

1. Other: Too many seats to move in one cycle.

This is state by state with some pretty hard firewall "safe" seats.

Same reason it would have been damn hard to pick up almost any more.

[ibegurpard]

4. yup

[usregimechange]

5. Good point

[opihimoimoi]

2. Palins bad picks...Angle, COD,

[The Croquist]

3. None of the above. We were lucky.

Although we defended 19 seats they were largely in Blue states. Lets have a look:

These are the Blue states / seats we defended; California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, both New York seats (Special election for Hillary Clinton's seat), Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

These are the last years that these states voted Republican in a Presidential election:

California 1988
Connecticut 1988
Delaware 1984
Hawaii 1984
Illinois 1988
Maryland 1988
New York 1984
Oregon 1984
Pennsylvania 1988
Vermont 1988
Washington 1984
Wisconsin 1984

None of these states have been carried by a Republican presidential candidate in 20 years and in the case of 6 of them the last time they voted Republican was in 1984 when Ronald Reagan carried 49 of 50 states. By definition they should be expected to be carried by us.

Of these 12 states and 13 of the 19 seats we were defending, Republicans took 3.

Of the other 6 seats we were defending, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Nevada, North Dakota and West Virginia they also took 3.

Like I said. We got lucky.

In 2012 we are defending 23 seats including Lieberman and Sanders. You may not like Lieberman but he caucuses with us. The Republicans will be defending 10 seats. Although many of the Democrat held seats are still in blue states 10 are in states that the Republicans have won in recently. They include Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

Remember that by design the US Senate is not supposed to turn over quickly. The Republicans get another chance in 2012. I think by then the Tea Party will have self destructed.

[hayu_lol]

6. They didn't win the senate because...

none of them wanted to be seen with Lieberman standing next to them.

[BlueCheese]

7. We were lucky...

... but in a sense, we also got beaten badly in 2004, so it was ordained then that we were going to be somewhat lucky this year. It was made worse in that we also had to defend special elections in Colorado and Delaware.

Unfortunately, 2012 will require a lot of defending, given how well we did in 2006.

[Bitwit1234]

8. Not enogh people liked them to vote for them