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   Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Gnter Grass still thinks reunification was a bad idea.
 Forty years of writing from Taylor Branch, James Fallows, Katherine Boo, Marjorie Williams, Joshua Micah Marshall, and more.
 With help from Washington, the for-profit college industry is loading up millions of low-income students with debt they'll never pay off.
 The best recent memoir from republican Washington is a hoax. That should tell you something.
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November 4, 2009
ELECTION '09 - GUBERNATORIAL RACES.... There's plenty to talk about from last night, but let's start with the statewide races. In Virginia, as expected, former state Attorney General Bob McDonnell (R) cruised to an easy victory in the gubernatorial race, beating Creigh Deeds by 18 points, 59% to 41%. This was not a surprise -- Deeds ran an odd, disjointed campaign -- and was in keeping with recent history. For the last 32 years, the party that wins the White House has gone on to lose Virginia's governorship the next year. Those looking for key electoral indicators or evidence of larger national trends are likely to be disappointed. McDonnell went out of his way to run a moderate campaign, despite a conservative record, and kept the Tea Party crowd at arm's length. The governor-elect ran away from his far-right background, and made sure that Sarah Palin -- who offered to "help" -- had nothing to do with his campaign. In New Jersey, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie (R), who led most of the year in the polls, managed to hang on and defeat incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine (D), 49% to 45%. The only surprise here is that Corzine was able to come this close -- the governor was widely unpopular throughout the state, has had approval ratings in the 30s all year, and is the chief executive of a state with the highest unemployment rate in more than three decades. With voters in an anti-incumbent mood, the result wasn't too hard to predict. New Jersey is generally considered a fairly reliable "blue" state, but let's not forget that while the Garden State may support Democratic presidential candidates, it tends to also support Republican gubernatorial candidates -- in 16 of the last 28 years, New Jersey has had a GOP governor. What's more, Christie also ran to the center. In late October, the Republican campaign released a video featuring an Obama speech, almost making it seem as if the president and Christie were on the same side. In other words, characterizing the results as a public rebuke of the White House doesn't just contradict exit polls, it also contradicts the Republican campaign strategy. The temptation is to analyze the results in the larger national picture. That's almost certainly a mistake. In November 2001, George W. Bush's approval rating was in the 80s, and Democrats nevertheless won the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia. Was it a hint of shifting political winds? Hardly -- the 2002 midterms didn't go especially well for Dems. The DNC sent around an entertaining quote collection yesterday, featuring Republican reactions the last time Dems did well in the off-year gubernatorial races.
Likewise, Media Matters documented examples of news outlets and media personalities arguing that Democratic victories in 2001 had little national significance. Laura Ingraham, for example, said, "Both sides are going to spin this ... but to say -- to call this some kind of watershed moment against Republican views is nonsense." Sounds about right. —Steve Benen 8:00 AM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (10)Comments
The most interesting election of the night was the New York 23rd. The Democrat beat the teabagger in what is clearly a safe Republican district. I hope they don't but Rush and Sarah need to rethink their strategy of purging moderate Republicans just a little. Posted by: Ron Byers on November 4, 2009 at 8:05 AM | PERMALINKArguably, the one race decided last night that did have national implications was the Congressional battle in upstate New York. National party figures intervened aggressively in an explicitly ideological mission, and the radical right lost. Posted by: Tony Greco on November 4, 2009 at 8:07 AM | PERMALINKLaura Ingraham was right about something? Oh wait. That was 8 years ago. She's grown since then. Posted by: anomaly on November 4, 2009 at 8:15 AM | PERMALINK Sadly, I think to a degree that the conservatives where wrong in 2001 and right now. Losing New Jersey (not so much Virginia) is important. The right response of course is to get Health Care Reform done now and done right, not to retreat into some sort of pseudo-Republican policy position. No one (especially conservatives) trust Congressional Republicans to do ANYTHING right. Democrats have to show that they can do things right, and Blue Dog Democrats have to make sure that Health Care Reform is comprehensive enough to reduce the percentage we spend on health care in this country, not simply try to make it seem smaller. We win in 2010 if we seem to be effective. Posted by: Lance on November 4, 2009 at 8:46 AM | PERMALINKReferring to Sarah Palin in particular, but the vast lunatic fringe on the right as well, I'm reminded of the All Powerful Oz, belching fire and smoke as he terrified Dorothy and Company. And it took a little dog- or a small boy, in the case of the Emperor's New Clothes- to expose the man behind the curtain. In upstate New York all it took was a little, off-year election. . . Posted by: DAY on November 4, 2009 at 8:48 AM | PERMALINKI think the lesson Democrats should take from Virginia is that the Republican brand is still viable and hasn't been particularly hobbled by the rightwing crazies. In other words, Republicans are still competitive when they aren't running teabag candidates and the Democrats can't sit back and watch the Republican Party go down just because of its rightwing. Posted by: Vicki Linton on November 4, 2009 at 8:56 AM | PERMALINKI live in VA and a lifelong Dem. In a sense, it may be good that McDonnell took the governorship. I tend to think that Deeds was the wrong candidate for the Dems, but now that McDonnell has the throne he is going to have to prove that he is governor for all Virginians. My guess is that he will have a tough time trying to reconcile his extreme right wing views with what is necessary to move the commonwealth forward, never mind that the arch conservative redneck side of the party in VA will be watching him like a hawk. Of particular interest in Northern VA, where I am, is how he will handle transportation issues. His plan of selling off state liquor stores to raise money amounts to a mere drop in the bucket for what is needed. Should he dare raise taxes, which is really the only way they are going to get enough transportation money, will be anathema to him and the Republicans. Thus, four years down the road, we will find ourselves worse off then before and ready to boot him and his right wing dolts out of office for good! I tend to think many independents are saying "ok, I will give him a chance, but if after 4 years nothing is happening, I'm outa here." The scariest winner in the VA election, however, is the new attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli. If ever there was a radical right winger, he is it. He has a social agenda a mile long and will use his new office as the means to bring this agenda to fruition...a very scary thought! To Cuccinelli, any form of government is wrong.. an anarchist is there ever was one. Posted by: RogerNoVa on November 4, 2009 at 10:15 AM | PERMALINKTo Cuccinelli, any form of government is wrong.. an anarchist is there ever was one. -- RogerNoVa, @ 10:15 Not quite true. Cuckoo Cuch is perfectly happy to have the government in everyone's bed, watching for deviant behaviour, like, for example, married couples using contraceptives. The two -- Taliban Bob and Cuckoo -- will be aiding and abetting one another in getting their medieval agendas installed in Virginia. Cuckoo has already said he'll enforce only those laws he approves of. Posted by: exlibra on November 4, 2009 at 11:06 AM | PERMALINKSteve, What were the democrats saying after their wins in 2001? It's only fair to look into that as well. Posted by: John on November 4, 2009 at 12:11 PM | PERMALINKPost a comment
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