4. Compare overall voter turnout rates for presidential and midterm elections? Why are they different?

They are not always that different. In the middle of Bush's second term things started to change. The war in Iraq was a big issue and people were getting tired of it. At that time it was a big campaign issue but as time went on it changed a bit. The economy was rolling along really well at that time. Housing was still booming the job market was great stock market was great but this was not a big issue. So guess what? Here come the Democrats and we all know what happened. Well the war was coming along so well that it was not a big issue any more. Then oil came up as a big issue. The Democrats couldn't use that one because it seemed that most people at the time were for drilling. Well the next best thing was to bring up the economy and that did it. When you tell people that there is a recession going on well, guess what? There goes your economy down the drain. It was already poised to do that but the Democrats knew that it was because they caused the whole mess in the first place. So it went from war to oil to the economy and that did it. The Democrats and the Democrat media always control what goes on. The next election will show some change because the approval ratings will change. Then by 2012 it will swing back the other way. It keeps going back and fourth all the time. Obama is going to make such a big mess that the Democrats will go down yet again.