SoonerBlue

It should've been a piece of cake for Tea Party candidate Doug Hoffman to win NY-23...but he lost in a district that has voted GOP for 138 years. What happened?

Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh were pushing hard for Hoffman...who also had Sarah Palin's mavericky support. How did the Tea Partiers turn an otherwise easy victory into defeat? What happened?

You say that the loss of two Dem governorships is a 'stinging rebuke' to the White House.

But you say nothing about how your hero Hoffman's loss is NOT a 'stinging rebuke' to extremist wingnut politics?

So much for the anti-Democratic Congress/White House Teabagger movement -- because Democrats GAINED seats in the House. Seats that can vote.

So, was Tuesday's election a wake-up call for Dems...or reality check for Repubs?

Righties are saying that President Obama has lost his mojo because NJ and VA elected GOP governors.

Let me get this straight -- two state elections losses by Democrats are a 'stinging rebuke' to the Democrats in the federal government...while two Democratic victories in federal elections don’t mean a thing?

The GOP lost both Congressional races the other night, including one in a district they'd held since the days of the Civil War. A 'stinging rebuke' to Obama, no doubt...

Lefties are saying that the state election results don't have as much national significance as the Congressional results, because state elections focus mostly on local issues and state issues.

Let's talk about the significance of state races. How about in November '01, when GWBush's approval ratings were in the 80s, and Democrats went on to win gubernatorial races in NJ and VA? That was certainly no portent of things to come -- the 2002 mid-terms didn't go very well for Dems.

Governorships have NEVER been a reliable barometer of national politics.

Incumbents also usually get kicked out in the mid-terms....and an especially bad time to be an incumbent is during an economic catastrophe.

A lot of people are saying that there's not much of a lesson to be learned from a bunch of low turn-out races in an odd year...except for, um, it's the economy stupid.