First thought on Tuesday's elections: There's a lot of firing going on in America, and now that includes politicians. Seems only fair and will likely continue. I don't think voters in New Jersey and Virginia were saying, "Oh the Democrats are awful, and we hate them," nor were they saying, "Republicans are wonderful, and we love them." The voters were being practical, and thinking policy: "Will he raise my taxes?" In Jersey, they fired the incumbent governor because they couldn't imagine the state getting off its current trajectory (high unemployment, high taxes, high spending) with him there. And they're certain they have to get off their current trajectory or they're sunk.

Both states hired new governors. The good news for the GOP is that they hired Republicans. The bad news is that if the Republicans don't make progress, they'll fire them too.

Second, it's too simple to say this was a vote against Obama. Yes, he went to Jersey three times and draped himself like a shawl around the Democratic incumbent. But the crowds showed and nobody booed and everyone had a good time. What happened actually is more interesting. They just didn't listen to him. Mr. Obama told Jersey to vote for Jon Corzine, and they didn't. They don't hate him, they're just not hearing him. That's new. They're warning him: Hey you with the health-care obsession, shape up or you'll get shipped out!

Complete text: <link>

I think that is exactly the point. America may like Obama (although his approval rating has plumeted in his first year), but that doesn't mean they won't fire him......

From the same piece, three different rection to the same information:

Professional politicians say great things after an election this stark, great in the sense that they reveal whether they have a tropism toward truth or a tropism toward . . . let us call it other things, including mindless spin. "We won last night!" Nancy Pelosi crowed. "I think we had a major victory," Rep. Elijah Cummings (D., Md.) on "Morning Joe." Mika Brzezinski was so delighted by his lurch from reality that she asked him to repeat it, and he did.

Interestingly, the president has said nothing.

Under the heading tropism toward truth we have what Sen. Mark Warner, himself a former Virginia governor, told Politico: "We got walloped."

That was admirably candid. Some party activists said the problem was with Democrats such as Virginia's gubernatorial nominee, Creigh Deeds, not more fully embracing Mr. Obama in their campaigns. White House adviser David Axelrod echoed this to Politico, saying that in previous elections, beleaguered candidates learned that "the history of running away from a president is not very good."

At least Warner is sane......

Scroll down below the map. <link>

We've seen this all before. Clinton started out popular. Then he took on the extraordinarily wealthy and powerful healthcare profiteers, in order to get Americans the basic right to healthcare that they wanted, and that citizens of every other wealthy nation have had for decades. The money came out of the woodwork to destroy him for daring to fight for the People, and that bought some extremely effective propaganda. It nearly destroyed his presidency, and it handed Congressional power to the Republicans. But, in the long run, he regained popularity, won reelection resoundingly, and at the time he was leaving office had the highest approval ratings ever recorded for a departing president. Unfortunately, we never got the health reform he'd gone through that hell for. I hope this time things are different.

SD threw out Daschle and now John Thune is not doing so well.

In Ohio Voinovich is retiring,but we did vote for Sherrod Brown and threw out DeWine last time.DeWine now wants to be Governor.Guess he cannot find a real job.

Until we take the money out of politics we're and I don't see congress doing that anytime soon. They get into office, become accustomed to the life style and perks and so they have to keep raising money rather than sitting at their desk and doing their job. The job gets whatever time is left after fund raising. I particularly dislike a wealthy candidate literally buying the office they're running for.

And exactly where in the oath of office does it say party loyalty trumps what's good for the country?