Busting the political myths of 2008

Washington Post blogger Chris Cillizza has come up with five myths about the election.
No. 1: The Republican Party suffered a death blow. (History says otherwise, because every president since 1934 except George W. Bush lost House seats in his first midterm election.)
No. 2: Black and young voters swept Barack Obama to victory. (”Exit polling suggests that there was no statistically significant increase in voting among either group,” Cillizza said.)
No. 3: Now that they control the White House and Congress, Democrats will usher in a new progressive era. (Not true, he said, because many of the freshman Democrats, especially in the House, are moderate to conservative.)
No. 4: A Republican candidate could have won the presidency this year. (Not likely, Cillizza said, thanks to President Bush’s record.)
No. 5: McCain made a huge mistake in picking Sarah Palin. (Though Palin hurt McCain’s attempts to reach out to independents and Democrats, “it’s hard to imagine conservatives rallying to McCain - even to the relatively limited extent that they did - without Palin on the ticket.”)