One of the prime examples of that is in the coattail effect. We are asked to believe that the Republicans gained so many Congressional seats in the 2002 election primarily because of the unsupportably high approval ratings for President George "Big W" Bush.

I find that reasoning unfathomable. They are suggesting that, when people go to the ballot box, they say "Hmmm, I like President Bush, and President Bush is a Republican, therefore I'm going to vote the Republican ticket." Is that line of thinking anything other than boneheaded? Would ANYONE actually vote a party just because they happen to like another person in that party?

I know I do not do so. I look through the voter's pamphlet carefully. I actually read the candidate's statements, and try to reconcile those statements with what I've read and heard from that candidate. I vote based on positions and qualifications. I care not one whit about their party, although I must admit that someone who claims to be part of the Raving Loony Extreme Opinion Space Aliens Out To Get Us Party will have to be pretty amazing in order to get my vote (and there have been political parties in Oregon whose credos do not fall all that far from my invented title...).