A lot of the TV pundits are acting like Republicans winning the Governors races in Virginia and New Jersey is somehow really meaningful as far as national party politics and President Obama. But if you look into the history of these two states and who they have elected as Governor recently you can see that is clearly ridiculous. Every Governor's race in Virginia since 1978 (when a Republican won with Carter in the White House) has gone to the party that's not in the White House. Today marks the 9th consecutive VA Gov. race that has gone that way. Why should we assume that it means anything about President Obama? That seems clearly ridiculous to me. One must also note that Creigh Deeds (the Democrat) ran an exceedingly bad campaign and that for most of the election he distanced himself from Obama and tried to win in a very "blue dog" sort of manner, he even said that Virginia should "opt out" of the Public Option. It wasn't until the last week or so that in a sign of desperation he got the President to campaign for him, but by then it was way too little way too late (not that I think Obama could have got Deeds elected, he was doomed either way.) In New Jersey Republican Whitman won with Clinton in office and in the 2000s Democratic Governors (McGreevey & Corzine) have won with W. Bush in office. So again, it's nothing new. Why act like ti's a big deal now? And again, Corzine = awful candidate. If a decent Democratic candidate was running, he would have wiped the floor with Christie. Oh the other hand it seems to me that the Democrats going 2-0 in the two congressional seats that were up today is a lot more meaningful as far as national party politics. Particularly with Bill Owens beating the wingnut Sarah Palin endorsed "Conservative" (which I guess means far right wing nutter to these people?) Hoffman in a district that hadn't gone for the Democrats since the Civil War and which went for the Republicans by 30 points in 2008. I'm personally hoping that the teabaggers keep up this "kick the moderates out of the Republican party" strategy. Owens may be a blue dog Democrat, but that's better than having a Republican... and I think most liberals will take more blue dogs in formerly Republican districts. They may be hard to herd on a lot of issues, but they are there with us on some issues.
When I checked in on it last night Scozzafava (the moderate Republican one that dropped out) had 5% of the vote. Republicans literally beat themselves just to get a conservative on the ticket. In other words, Scozzafava became the Ralph Nader of that election
The funniest is yet to come my friend. Just wait until 2010 when Palin starts getting polite rejections from Republicans when she offers to endorse them