What happened to the 72 hour plan?

[CSpindizzy]

It seems that the Mehlman/Rove strategy that worked so well in 2002 and 2004 completely tanked this time. Numbers are showing the effect was no where near what it was in the previous two elections.

 

[VolunteerHillbilly]

After watching news reports of voters standing in long lines hours after the polls closed I was very surpised to learn that only 40% of voting age Americans actually voted in the election. I know a small percentage is probably ineligible to felon/mental status, but I'm guessing that to be well under 2% of the population. It will be very interesting to learn who stayed home this time? Why they did so? And what, if anything, will get them off the couch in the future?

 

[VolunteerHillbilly]

As a follow-up, in the 2004 election 60.7% of the electorate voted. I heard this morning that the numbers of the 2006 election are somewhere between 40% and 41% of the electorate. Turnout is always lower in non-presidential years but, considering the success that the Ds had I have to guess that a lot of the non-voters are people who voted R in 2004. Given that, I have to assume the 72 hour plan was utterly ineffective. I'm sure that very capable political scientists will be dissecting all of this for some time to come.