Uninformed

On a basic question of who controlled the levers of power in Congress in 2008, Republicans and Men answered correctly about 2/3 of the time. Democrats and Women were about as good as a coin flip - Independents weren't much better.

[ANES 2008 data]

Universe = people who self-reported that they voted for President in 2008

Question 1:"Do you happen to know which party had the most members in the House of Representatives in Washington BEFORE the election (this/last) month?

Question 2:"Do you happen to know which party had the most members in the U.S. Senate BEFORE the election (this/last)month?"

The results are dismal no matter how you look at it, but on these basic questions Republicans and Men were less poorly informed than Democrats and Women.

By Party ID	Dems Control House	GOP Control House	\\	Dems Control Senate	GOP Control Senate
DEM-ID	51.7%	48.3%	\\	48.2%	51.8%
GOP-ID	65.8%	34.2%	\\	69.7%	30.3%
IND-ID	55.7%	44.3%	\\	48.4%	51.6%

By Gender	Dems Control House	GOP Control House	\\	Dems Control Senate	GOP Control Senate
Male	66.3%	33.7%	\\	65.9%	34.1%
Female	50.2%	49.8%	\\	46.2%	53.8%

Though I'm glad Republicans outperformed, this is hardly chest-thumping data. How the hell did the party run a major election without conveying this basic information? This is a colossal failure of GOP campaign management.