Election Night Analysis

A few thoughts on last night's election returns. Read Sally's piece below for a great analysis of McDonnell's win in Virginia.

1. A good night for the GOP, but more of a bad night for Democrats. Independents are restive, and they are increasingly disillusioned with their alliance with Barack Obama. They still like him, mind you (we all do, of course. He's so damn likable!) , but they are beginning to wonder "where's the beef?" and "is all the hope and change simply a cover for creeping neo-socialism?" They didn't vote for that--they (independents) voted for Obama because they thought he would do a better job in alleviating the financial crisis that hit as the election revved up in the Fall of 2008. Now they (a few percentage points worth of them) are moving away from his party and back to where most of them came from--the right side of the spectrum (Republicans lost more self-identifiers to "independent" than Dems).

2. The Democrat win in upstate NY is unfortunate. The Republicans picked a liberal in DeDe Scozzafava--she was not a moderate, irrespective of what the New York Times or CNN tells you. And let's face it--Hoffman was kind of a an uninspiring guy. I followed this race exclusively over the interwebs recently, and hadn't seen any live/taped interviews with the guy until late yesterday afternoon. I was not impressed. Yes he seemed like a good guy, and yes, I'm sure he believes in his conservative ideas yada, yada, yada. But damn, what a boring guy--and not quick on his feet. The election also shows the weakness of the Republican Party (and the conservative movement) in the Northeast.

3. Barack Obama's got no coat-tails. Blue Dog Dems--especially those in Red States or in districts that have voted Republican--have little to fear when it comes to the President. His personal popularity does not translate to policy support. And I think Republicans should continue to hammer home on the theme of "hey, we like the guy too. Love to shoot baskets or drink beers with him. But running the country? Nah." Validate what independent voters are already feeling.

4. Republicans need to run out the clock on health care. No--this isn't "doing nothing". It's making sure something awful isn't done--which is after all, a conservative virtue. If they can delay things for a few more months, Obamacare as we know it will be dead, as fearful Democrats seek safe haven in an election year. Then they need to take a leadership position on real health-care reform--market based, individually oriented. They need not only to be seen leading on this, they need to lead on it.

5. And for the most ridiculous piece of election analysis I've seen this morning, I give you Mark Preston, CNN political editor. Preston starts out in a pained attempt to disassociate the old fashioned ass-whuppin' the Democrats got last night with anything to do with the head of their party, one Barack Hussein Obama. After utterly failing in that pursuit, he tries then to assure us that the REAL story here is the coming Civil War in the Republican Party. And they wonder why they're getting their clocks cleaned by Fox?