Sometimes, you can almost hear the conventional wisdom and expectations shift, even when they are based on faulty premises.

I've heard dozens of times over the past few months that large Democratic losses in the House were inevitable this year because of sweeping Democratic victories in 2006 and 2008.

Indeed, on Monday's edition of MSNBC's "Morning Joe,"� host Joe Scarborough, a former GOP Congressman from Florida, echoed that point, asserting that a "realignment"� in the House was inevitable this year, even if unemployment were at 4 percent.

The reality is quite different. When I first started talking to Republican and Democratic insiders in December 2008, none of them believed that anything was "inevitable"� in November 2010....