As CNN put it a Republican Renaissance. As the Post puts it GOP wins reveal cracks in Obama coalition. Yes the Democrats are on the verge of complete and total defeat. As one pundit put it they’ve lost independents and that’s a bad sign for 2010. Another said economic factors make for a grim prospect for the Democrats in 2010. Yes, that’s certainly true but this is 2009. The economy is most likely going to be in a much different place than it is now.
What do the results of the elections have to do on the national level? Not much. These elections were much more about local issues and local candidates and the strength and weaknesses of those candidates.
Yes, the Democrats lost in Virginia and New Jersey. In Virginia the Dems got their clocks cleaned.
With Virgina it would have been nice if someone on TV or in the papers had given an historical perspective on the Virginia governor contest. Here it is. See if you notice a trend
Year President Governor
1977 Carter Dalton-R
1981 Reagan Robb-D
1985 Reagan Baliles-D
1989 Bush Wilder-D
1993 Clinton Allen-R
1997 Clinton Gilmore-R
2001 Bush Warner-D
2005 Bush Kaine-D
2009 Obama McDonnell-R
Also about 1.7 million fewer people voted. Now does that excuse how badly the Democrats did no it doesn’t. Deeds was just a horrible candidate. As one of my friends said, who lives in Virginia, Deeds never made a strong case for voting for him.
New Jersey is the more problematic loss. But just about everyone around Corzine and his mother was under investigation and indictment. Also the economy in New Jersey was lousy.
Lost in all of this coverage is what happened in New York in the special election in district 23. A Republican district that’s been Republican for like 125 years was won by a Democrat.
What would have been nice is some balanced coverage about what was happening.
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