Americans voted to keep heading in the wrong direction

I have to confess this has been one of the most amazing elections I’ve ever lived through. I  thought, based on models I’ve seen in the past, that with the current rate of inflation, the price of gasoline, the price of food, the crime rate going up in the big cities, people crossing the border by the millions, and radicalism being taught in schools, all of that would come together to create a red wave. I said so publicly. It didn’t. And I think that’s one of the most puzzling things that we’re gonna have to really look at. 

Seventy-five percent of the country in the exit polls said we’re going in the wrong direction, 75%, three out of every four. And yet, they went in and they voted to continue going in the wrong direction. It was fascinating to me, and I think requires every Republican to look carefully at what happened and why did it happen. And frankly, it’s a grave danger for the Democrats. 

When we won in 1994, first time in 40 years, the Republicans took control, the shock was so great, that if you look at Bill Clinton’s comments the next day, he says, you know, we got a shellacking here, we have to really rethink what we’re doing. And the next year, he came to the State of the Union and said, the era of big government is over. 

Because they did not get a shellacking this time, Joe Biden held a press conference and basically said, everything worked perfectly. I’m not changing anything, and we’re gonna keep doing what we’re doing. 

It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out in 2024. But I just want you to know, I am aware that the red wave became a trickle. I’m aware that certainly what my model suggested didn’t happen, which means we got to rethink it and look at it again, try to learn some lessons and move forward.

I’ve always said, what really matters isn’t the polls. It’s the votes. And I think the election this year proved, once again, the pollsters can tell you one thing, but then the American people get to go tell you something else. 

And for the first time in a long time, they were more democratic than the polls. Normally, they’re more Republican than the polls. And that was one of the great shocks of the 2022 election. 

Finally, despite everything, it is a fact that Governor DeSantis won a gigantic victory, that Florida, the third largest state has now become solidly Republican, literally at every level. You’re going to have a much more conservative education system. And DeSantis had a big boost towards potential future ambitions. At the same time, I think it’s important to recognize that in Washington, the really big change will be 

Nancy Pelosi  turning the gavel over to Kevin McCarthy. That’ll be an enormous shift from the hard left to somebody who’s a solid conservative, and that will really change the dynamics of Washington, despite Joe Biden’s refusal in his press conference yesterday, to admit how big the change will be. 

Anyway, we’ll keep watching and I’ll keep reporting. It’s going to be a fascinating two years.