Election 2006: What Happened and What Does it Mean?

RealClearPolitics
By John McIntyre
...That [the mid-term election was a vote of no-confidence by the country on the Bush administration's Iraq course of action] is the reason Democratic gains are potentially far softer and less far reaching than many Republican or Democratic partisans appreciate. This election was not a vote in favor of Democrats, nor was it a blanket repudiation of the Iraq war as some on the left have mistakenly assumed. The only consensus in the country is the "stay the course" policy in Iraq had to change, but the shape that change takes moving forward is where it will start to get very tricky for Democrats....