Back in '92 and '93 there was nobody at the top of the GOP, either. Now, as then, someone will emerge to take advantage of the situation, to further his own ambitions as well as the ambitions of the party.
Yep. Democrats figured that after 12 years of Republicans in the White House, with the Gipper gone, and what was seen as a general failure of the Bush presidency, that they would have no problems keeping control of the House. The Senate was iffier given the large number of open seats that had been held by Dems, but even there they were confident.
They figured the Republican base was staggered, the Democratic base was too powerful to overcome, and that the angst that had arisen in the country over Hillarycare (as one pundit called Hillary's health care commission), the huge tax increases in the budget, Gays in the Military, and a host of other smaller issues would peter out by the mid term elections.
Just a few weeks before the election Democrats were confidently predicting that they were going to add to their lead in the House.
It was an incredibly brutal shock to the Democratic party leadership when the returns started pouring in.
No one, I don't think even the Republicans, thought that they were going to pick up 54 seats in the House.
An even greater shock was the defeat of Tom Foley, the sitting speaker of the House.