At Wednesday's Republican presidential debate in California, John McCain asserted that Iraq was not the major factor in the GOP's 2006 election losses:
Spending got out of control. Republicans lost the 2006 election not over the war in Iraq, over spending. Our base became disenchanted.
The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press surveyed voters in the 2006 election.
GOP voters were found to be unhappy about spending:
