Repeat for a Revival?

By Michael Medved

Eerie parallels between the election of 2008 and the Democratic sweep of 1992 should reassure Republicans. In 1992, Bill Clinton swept to victory with 370 electoral votes; Barack Obama apparently won 365. Clinton beat the first President Bush by 5.5 percent of the popular vote, Obama beat McCain by 6.5 percent. Even more strikingly, both houses of Congress will convene with almost precisely the same partisan alignment they showed in '92--258 Democrats in the House, 57 in the Senate.

Despite these lopsided margins, Republicans came roaring back to take both House and Senate in 1994, then the White House six years later. Today's Congressional leadership for Republicans is better than '92, and for Nancy Pelosi's Democrats, it's far worse. With focus and unity, the GOP might once again confound conventional wisdom with a quick conservative revival.