11/8/2004 – In My Humble Opinion: Election Reflections – Opinion – Chattanoogan.com — Backlashes are hard to control. Here are two interesting essays on the electtion.

How does one explain this unforeseen result? A combination of factors played a part, but one of the most influential was the backlash vote. Americans in every state turned out not only to support the president, but also to protest Dan Rather; Michael Moore; George Soros; MoveOn.org; MTV; Hollywood; numerous 527 fundraising groups; elite academia; the mainstream media; European meddlers; an obstructionist senate (including the minority leader), and the United Nations.

and this one in the Washington Post (subscription unfortunately):

Democrats will wince at my metaphor, but I can’t help thinking that black voters are the elephant in the room. The party talks about faring poorly with churchgoing people although 88 percent of black voters — a religious group if ever there was one — cast their votes for Kerry. Party officials fear that liberal values have acquired a “very upper-middle class flavor,” to borrow author Thomas Frank’s phrase, which undoubtedly confounds the many poor and working-class blacks who have supported the Democrats for decades.