James Carville: I've been fascinated by this conventional wisdom of 2008 and the Obama era. He looked back at some of the headlines from that time and they're really striking. The years immediately following the initial Obama election, it's not long before those assumptions are challenged by the rise of the Tea Party. Campaign 2010 proved to me an historic election for the Republican Party. That really just sort of energized all these voters.
It’s March 2013. The G.O.P., in tatters, issues a scathing report blaming its electoral failures on an out-of-touch leadership that ignores minorities at its own peril. Just three years later, Donald Trump proves his party dead wrong. Today, how certain assumptions took hold of both parties — and what they’re still getting wrong — heading into the midterm elections.