Why couldnt the Democratic classes of 2006 and 2008..........

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Because that was then and this is now.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

And to think that as recently as five years ago politicos were agonizing over the stultifying effects of incumbency advantage.

I suppose everyone misses the obvious, don't they? Especially at the time. The key point a few years back was that neither party was really trying outside a carefully selected list of marginals, which, with the benefit of hindsight and historical perspective, is the actual weird thing that needs explaining. Because it was never like that before the late 1990s.