If the outcomes of these elections mean anything (and they don't mean much), it is that Republicans do better when they shed the populist hysterics that have become fashionable in the Right. New Jersey means especially little, since Corzine was a pretty lame governor, and didn't even lose by much. Still, Christie is advocating for alternative energy, has said that he doesn't want to force his pro-life beliefs on the electorate, and generally ran a respectable campaign. There weren't any "You Lie!" exclamations coming from Virginia either. District 23, of course, gained notoriety for right wingers ousting a "RINO" and boosting a Palin-backed conservative, Hoffman. He lost, in a district that almost always chooses republicans. The bad news (or good, depending on how you see it) is that Republicans will almost certainly ignore the lessons of these elections: that sanity wins over rude paranoia and anti-intellectualism. More likely, they will sweep NY-23 under the rug, and proclaim their tea-party strategies as victorious.