There is no way to spin or sugar-coat yesterday\’s midterm election. It was an epic victory for Republicans, and an epic clock-cleaning for Democrats.
-In the all-important senate races, Republicans – who needed 6 additional seats to move from 45 to 51, thus taking control – have picked up a minimum of 7 seats so far. But it is a near certainty that Dan Sullivan will unseat Mark Begich in Alaska, bringing the total to 52, and they have a fighting chance in the Louisiana runoff as well.
Additionally, Angus King, the independent Senator from Maine, said last night he is considering caucusing with Republicans.
How ironic is it that, as many people predicted, an independent might caucus with Republicans…..but the independent is not Greg Orman, who lost by 11% to Pat Roberts in Kansas, it is Angus King of Maine. (NOTE: King has since made it clear he\’s sticking with the Democrat caucus.)
-In the house, Republicans have significantly enlarged the majority they already had. They started the day with 231 seats to 199 for Democrats, and now have a minimum of 243…with 17 others yet to be decided.
-And as for the governorships – where it looked like Republicans had serious weaknesses – they have won at least 3 more seats than they started with, and now have a total of 31…with the possibility of one or two more once all the counting is done.
So what is primarily responsible for this massive Republican victory?
The answer is that, incredibly (I\’ve never seen this before), both the Republican strategists and the Democrat President have run on the same side of an issue:
-Republicans ran on the premise that Democrats, if elected, would support President Obama\’s policies. They pointed out that Democrat incumbents had voted for virtually every one of them in the past, and assured voters they would continue to do so in the future.
-Democrat candidates, for their part, desperately tried to convince voters this was not so. To listen to some of them, you\’d swear they barely knew who President Obama was. Several would not even acknowledge they voted for him.
Would this have worked? We\’ll never know for sure, because…
-…along came Barack Obama – a man whose narcissism knows no bounds and whose ego would not allow him to sit by as his own party members ran the other way; especially given what a great job he thinks he is doing. So, instead of acceding to his fellow party members\’ strategy, Mr. Obama made a point of standing in front of the microphones and cameras, to tell us all that this election was about his policies. All about him. Not them, but him. Him. Got that? Him.
Which was exactly what Republicans were saying.
The Republican Party could not have made Barack Obama\’s words more beneficial if their own speechwriters had written them. And look how it turned out.
The result? From now to the end of his presidency, Mr. Obama – like it or don\’t – will have to deal with a congress fully controlled by Republicans. With no Harry Reid to run interference for him; to sit on hundreds of bills passed by the house and make sure they never came to a senate vote.
Politically, this means that if Republicans pass legislation to get the country moving again, and to undo some of the damage they feel Mr. Obama has wrought on us all, the only way to stop it will be by Presidential veto.
Which, if Mr. Obama uses his veto pen as copiously as I suspect he will, means that, in 2016, Republicans will be able to run on the premise that they were elected to legislate change, they made good on their promise to do so, and the only reason change did not take place was due to a Democrat President\’s obstructionism….which would continue if another Democrat President were elected.
They must be licking their chops at the thought.
