Outdated Quoting

Few things really annoy me, but quoting an 18 month old post out of context as a failed prediction, and ignoring many more recent posts is very bad form.

NZBC (and now linked to by Public Address) quote me saying this in Feb 2005:

The Republican Party in the US is on the verge of becoming the natural party of Government. This is not due to their strengths as much as the idiocy of the Democratic Party which makes Michael Moore their unofficial spokesperson.

Now firstly on a minor point this was not a prediction for the upcoming elections, it was commenting on why the GOP has done so remarkably well in recent years (and was saying not because GOP is good, but because Dems tend to stuff up).

But more to the point on numerous occasions since I have made explicit predictions that the Democrats would win at the mid-terms, and that the Republicans deserved to lose. Ignoring these more recent statements is, to be honest, crappy behaviour.

13 months ago I said:

I’ve been thinking for a while that the 2006 mid-terms could be very very bad for the Republican Party and Bush.

Just a few weeks ago I posted on the Republicans losing control of the House due to their out of control spending which I labelled shameful.

Finally, as I noted on NZBC, the Republicans had:

* A President with almost the lowest approval ratings in history
* A hugely unpopular war
* Multiple corruptions scandals
* Hypocrisy over morals
* A total absence of fiscal discipline

Yet the swing to the Democrats was slightly less than the post-WWII average swing in a President’s sixth year. The average swing against has seen 29 House seats lost and six Senate seats.

Anyway back to the main point. To take one outdated non-prediction and highlight that as a failed prediction, while ignoring the dozen or so more recent posts which did in fact make a prediction and have consistently said the Democrats will do well etc., is regrettable.