Finally. After what's seemed like an eternity of waiting, and wading through all the political noise, election day's come and gone.
Though there are still some close races calling for recounts or review of absentee ballots, the results are final in terms of what Congress will look like in January. The Republicans won more than 60 House seats all told, the biggest swing in more than 70 years. The total is now 239 to 196, Republican's favor.
While the Democrats prevailed in the Senate, their majority was heavily trimmed. The numbers are now 49 Dem's, 46 Republicans, and 2 Independents. Three contests are still undecided. So, it looks as if the Senate will no longer be a rubber stamp for Democrat legislation either.
But one of the real shifts in power came in the gubernatorial races where Republicans now will govern 30 or more states.
What I thought most interesting though, were the comments from the public, the electees and the pundits. Because, it's as if each of them was reading from this blog. No one, especially the top Republicans themselves, believes that this election reflects a public demand and desire for the Republican party itself. What was really demonstrated was a need for change in direction.
Not surprisingly, the key issues came down to unemployment, taxes, overturning the health care bill, illegal immigration, bailouts, wasteful government spending and government's size. And those are the very issues that make up the heart of the current administration's agenda. Therefore, the vote reflected a thorough public dislike for the present policies and goals in Washington, and have made it abundantly clear that they want to be heard.
Despite the landslide effect of the vote, there were some notable exceptions to the debacle. Harry Reid survived in Nevada regardless of the fact that his state ranks first in every negative category there is. Barbara Boxer too lived through it all and so did Nancy Pelosi, although she'll no longer be Speaker of the House.
For now though, the Republicans have gotten themselves into a very strong position going forward, and now the ball is squarely in their court. They're even likely better off not having won the Senate too. Because, they've now got two years to work on restructuring legislation, yet they haven't got enough strength to do it all themselves. That means the Democrats, who'll likely be obstructionist will get further blame next time around, insuring more Republican wins in Congress in 2012.
When all is said and done though, it's the president who took the biggest hit. Because he put himself at the forefront of every single issue that was overwhelmingly voted against by the public. And there are no words he can say, or things he can do to change that. Folks have clearly told him they're fed up with him and his ideas. In fact, every district he visited personally before the election showed the biggest losses. Even his own home district in Chicago was lost to a Republican. It doesn't get worse than that.
Nonetheless, he still might be able to salvage enough over the next two years by moving more to the middle and softening some of his stringent attempts to socialize and weaken the nation. But, the odds are that he won't do that. Because its elitism and arrogance that drove him to push for all the damaging legislation enacted to date in the first place. So, I guess the only remaining question is who he'll converse with for the next two years, because I don't think any rational Democrat will want to go anywhere near him.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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