ABC News Exclusive: Nancy Pelosi Seriously Considers Staying as Democratic Leader  —  In the Wake of Tuesday's Shellacking, the Current Speaker May Remain in Congress and in Leadership  —  In the wake of Tuesday's shellacking, outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-CA …

Sen. Patty Murray wins fourth term  —  Democrat Patty Murray has won a fourth term to the U.S. Senate.  Her Republican challenger, Dino Rossi, conceded the race Thursday evening after new vote totals showed Murray widening her lead.  —  Sen. Patty Murray has won a fourth term …

GOP Voters Like Three Candidates Best for 2012  —  OK, the election's over, and the message from most voters was that they didn't care much for President Obama's agenda.  Now the focus is on the race for the presidency in 2012.  —  On the Republican side, it's a dead heat between the ex-governors …

Fuzzy Math Dogs Obama's Asia Trip  —  As if Tuesday's shellacking wasn't enough, President Barack Obama is getting pilloried by the right on the cost of his 10-day trip to Asia, with outlandish hyperventilation going directly from suspect Indian media reports to conservative U.S. media outlets …

Geithner Visited Jon Stewart in April, Though Not for Laughs  —  In the midst of debates on financial regulation and China's currency in April, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner sat down to discuss the U.S. economy — with comedian Jon Stewart.  —  Geithner and Stewart, host of Comedy Central's …

Governor Christie to cut 1,200 public sector jobs, saving NJ millions  —  When Governor Christie set his sights on reducing the size of government and the debt in the Garden State, he is keeping that promise.  —  The governor announced that beginning January, he'll cut 1,200 state jobs saving New Jersey taxpayers $8.8 million.

The Day After the Day After  —  O.K., you poor little Democrats.  Stop sobbing.  Lift up your little liberal heads and shout.  There's gonna be. ...  Umm.  —  Harry Reid!  There's gonna be more Harry Reid!  Nobody thought it could happen, but the charisma-challenged Senate majority …

Blue Dogs Dumped  —  Bill Galston has an elegant statistical analysis of what happened on Tuesday: it wasn't so much that Republican enthusiasm was up or Democratic fervor was down—there was a near symmetrical shift from blue to red among independents.  This stands to reason …

Rep. Grayson: Dems lost because of ‘appeasement’  —  House Democrats were swept out of power because party leaders tried to hard to “appease” Republicans on major issues, said a high-profile member Thursday who lost his seat.  —  Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) said Democratic leaders …

BREAKING in Illinois: CNN projects Democratic Gov. win  —  (CNN) - Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn has narrowly won his bid for a full term in Illinois, CNN projects.  He defeated Republican challenger Bill Brady and three other minor candidates.  Quinn was lieutenant governor in 2009 …

Palin ‘favorites’ photo that claims Obama is a ‘Taliban Muslim’  —  (Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported that Sarah Palin had retweeted a posting by Ann Coulter.  Palin had starred the posting, which marks it as a “favorite.")  —  Updated 9:32 p.m.

The Midterms: Lessons Learned and the Way Forward  —  Have an intelligent message, and fight for your right to be heard.  —  Now that the dust has settled on the 2010 midterm elections, it's slowly becoming clear just how monumental the results really are.  We saw an extreme left-wing agenda suffer a crushing defeat.

GOP candidate slams the NRCC  —  North Carolina Republican congressional candidate Renee Ellmers might well be headed to Washington — but she's slamming the National Republican Congressional Committee regardless.  —  In a 471-word statement posted on her campaign website Thursday afternoon …

Devastation: GOP Picks Up 680 State Leg.  Seats  —  While the Republican gains in the House and Senate are grabbing the most headlines, the most significant results on Tuesday came in state legislatures where Republicans wiped the floor with Democrats.  —  Republicans picked up 680 seats …

Exit Polling Shows Gay Voters Played Important Role in Republican Victories in the U.S. House  —  For Immediate Release  —  GOP Captures almost 1/3 of Gay Vote in House Races  —  (Washington, D.C.) - Exit polling reveals that gay and lesbian voters played a critical role …

My son is gay  —  Or he's not.  I don't care.  He is still my son.  And he is 5.  And I am his mother.  And if you have a problem with anything mentioned above, I don't want to know you.  —  I have gone back and forth on whether I wanted to post something more in-depth about my sweet boy and his choice of Halloween costume.

Former Coleman attorney, law experts: Emmer has steep hill to climb  —  St. Paul, Minn. — Republican Tom Emmer will have a hard time finding enough votes to overcome Democrat Mark Dayton's lead in the governor's race, recount attorneys and election law experts said Thursday.

Pawlenty Inadvertently Explains How House Republicans Are ‘Lying To You’ About Spending Cuts  —  As ThinkProgress has repeatedly noted, despite their professed commitment to cut government spending, most Republicans in Congress refuse to propose specifics that would actually cut spending in any significant way.

A recoil against liberalism  —  Unwilling to delay until tomorrow mistakes that could be made immediately, Democrats used 2010 to begin losing 2012.  Trying to preemptively drain the election of its dangerous (to Democrats) meaning, all autumn Democrats described the electorate as suffering a brain cramp …