GOP's 'giddiness about a big red wave' ended up blowing up in their face

According to a report from the New York Times, Republicans have only themselves to blame for the midterm election disaster that saw them take over the House by a far slimmer margin than they expected and actually lost a seat in a Senate that seemed ripe for a similar takeover. At issue, the report notes was an over-reliance on sketchy Republican-leaning polls that fed into a popular narrative among conservatives that a "red wave" was coming which, in turn, led candidates to make critical mistakes in the waning days before voters headed to the polls. Coupled with the political factors already favoring Republicans — including inflation and President Biden’s unpopularity — the skewed polls helped feed what quickly became an inescapable political narrative: A Republican wave election was about to hit the country with hurricane force." It fed the home-team boosterism of an expanding array of right-wing media outlets," the NYT report added, "The virtual 'bazaar of polls,' as a top Republican strategist called it, was largely kept humming by right-leaning pollsters using opaque methodology, in some cases relying on financial support from hyperpartisan groups and benefiting from vociferous cheerleading by Mr. Another contributing factor, the Times is reporting, was rightwing outlets cheering on a potential red wave which helped boost ratings while at the same time, in the case of Fox News, "The network’s own polling unit, respected throughout the news industry for its nonpartisanship and transparency, was not detecting a Republican wave."