Everybody is an independent. Obama’s non-ideological penchant has spread. It’s the antidote to tea partyism.
Dan Baltz has the traditional view:
The most significant change came among independent voters, who solidly backed Democrats in 2006 and 2008 but moved decisively to the Republicans on Tuesday, according to exit polls. In Virginia, independents strongly supported Republican Robert F. McDonnell in his victory over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds, while in New Jersey, they supported Republican Chris Christie in his win over Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine.
For months, polls have shown that independents were increasingly disaffected with some of Obama’s domestic policies. They have expressed reservations about the president’s health-care efforts and have shown concerns about the growth in government spending and the federal deficit under his leadership. …
Obama’s bailout was a disaster, but as far as “health-care efforts”, you can argue that too little has been done leaving voters empty, while they wonder why Wall Street is flying high, with health care unfortunately now part of that mix.
The model win for the night was Bob McDonnell in Virginia who didn’t run ads identifying himself as a Republican even though he’s farther to the right than most on the national scene.
In other words, in the age of Obama, it’s now more about personality power over party ideology even more than it was before. However, when you have someone like Deeds who isn’t as talented as Obama, and send them out into an election without core principles on which to campaign and fight, they’re going to get shellacked.
It’s not for amateurs.
After watching a brief clip of Mr. Hoffman on the late night version of “Hardball” last night, all I could think of was how in the world did he get this far? Worst politician I’ve seen on camera at this level in a very long time. But he and his tea party friends managed to knock off Scozzafava, even as she helped knock him off. We Democrats, salute you.
The New Jersey loss is the big one, which will likely send shockwaves through the Blue Dogs, as well as the Bayh, Lincoln, Nelson and Lieberman coalition in the Senate. This bodes ill for real health care reform and big accomplishments, which is the only way Dems can make the case in 2010, because Obama won’t be on the ballot next year either.
Hey, but a least we’re not Republicans, who are in the throes of a political war. Democrats don’t have that kind of passion to worry about at this point. We’re all hoped out. See Maine.
