Top Items:
Peter Baker / New York Times:
President Obama Left Fighting for His Own Relevance — WASHINGTON — Two things were clear long before the votes were counted on Tuesday night: President Obama would face a Congress with more Republicans for his final two years in office, and the results would be seen as a repudiation of his leadership.
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Jay Newton-Small / TIME:
McConnell: No Shutdowns, No Full Obamacare Repeal — An exclusive interview with TIME about his plans as Majority Leader — Sen. Mitch McConnell was giddy, not an emotion often seen in the sober 72-year-old Kentuckian. But that's the only way to describe TIME's interview with him in Perry County, Kentucky, on Monday afternoon.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Politico and Business Insider
Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Meet The Real Next Senate Majority Leader: Ted Cruz — If you thought House Speaker John Boehner has had a miserable time trying to govern, wait until you see what incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is about to deal with. — The Kentucky Republican achieved his lifelong dream …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
Molly Ball / The Atlantic Online:
A Republican Wave Sweeps the Midterm Elections — In an echo of 2010, the GOP overshot its targets, taking the Senate and winning House and statehouse races across the board. Now what will they do? — LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Republicans took the Senate majority in a commanding sweep on Tuesday …
Discussion:
Vox
Carrie Budoff Brown / Politico:
No Obama pivot after midterms — Voters demanded change from Washington on Tuesday, and Republicans say it's now up to President Barack Obama to deliver it. — But don't count on that happening. — The White House that emerges after the midterm elections won't look …
Discussion:
Liberaland, Hinterland Gazette and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
New York Times:
Negativity Wins the Senate — Republicans would like the country to believe that they took control of the Senate on Tuesday by advocating a strong, appealing agenda of job creation, tax reform and spending cuts. But, in reality, they did nothing of the sort.
Discussion:
John Hawkins' Right Wing News and Washington Post
New York Times:
Election Results: Republicans Win Senate Control With at Least 7 New Seats
Discussion:
American Prospect, Washington Post, The Carbon Brief, Outside the Beltway, Firedoglake and National Journal
Elana Schor / Politico:
Elections give Keystone a filibuster-proof majority
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway
Evan Osnos / New Yorker:
The Dawn of the Age of McConnell
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The Great Debate, Washington Post, Raw Story, Addicting Info, The Atlantic Online and Guardian
Dan Balz / Washington Post:
An unhappy electorate is toughest on Obama and the Democrats
Discussion:
New York Times and Guardian
Justin Sink / The Hill:
Obama: Worst map since Eisenhower
Discussion:
Guardian and Talking Points Memo
Washington Post:
Battle for the Senate: How the GOP woke up while Democrats were feeling the drag — One night in early September, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called a longtime colleague, Sen. Pat Roberts, from his living room in Louisville, furious about the 78-year-old Republican's fumbling and lethargic reelection campaign.
Discussion:
Power Line, The Atlantic Online, The Hill, Mediaite, BillMoyers.com and RedState
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The Hill:
Democrats sift through the debris — Democrats on Wednesday morning began sorting through the wreckage of disastrous midterm elections in which losses eclipsed even their worst fears. — The scale of the defeats, taken together, was breathtaking: a Senate majority lost …
Discussion:
Power Line
New York Times:
Republicans' First Step Was to Handle Extremists in Party — WASHINGTON — It was late spring, and Republican leaders knew that if they wanted to win the Senate, they needed to crush the enemy: not Democrats, but the rebels within their own party. — And Chris McDaniel …
Discussion:
Bloomberg Politics and No More Mister Nice Blog
Justin Sink / The Hill:
After blowout, Obama to answer questions
Discussion:
Politico and Political Wire
Fox News:
Republicans take Senate majority, Fox News projects
Discussion:
Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, CNN, Hot Air, Scared Monkeys, The Daily Caller, Weekly Standard and The Other McCain
Alexander Burns / Politico:
GOP takes control of Senate in midterm rout
Discussion:
ABC News, ABC News, The Hill, Fox News and Just Security
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
The Polls Were Skewed Toward Democrats — For much of this election cycle, Democrats complained the polls were biased against them. They said the polls were failing to represent enough minority voters and applying overly restrictive likely-voter screens. They claimed early-voting data was proving the polls wrong.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
Nathaniel Herz / Anchorage Daily News:
Sullivan lead holds in Alaska U.S. Senate race; Begich won't concede — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan appeared to grab an insurmountable lead over incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Begich early Wednesday, with all of Alaska's precincts reporting.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Associated Press, BizzyBlog, Washington Post and Guardian
Helena Bottemiller Evich / Politico:
Berkeley breaks through on soda tax — Berkeley, Calif., a city known for its progressive politics, made history Tuesday night by approving the first real sin tax on soda in the United States. — Voters looked likely to approve Measure D, a penny-per-ounce tax, by a wide margin …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, The Huffington Post, Truth Revolt and Bloomberg Politics
Tina Nguyen / Mediaite:
MSNBC's Matthews and Sharpton Bash Grimes Concession Speech: ‘You Need to Be Gracious!’ — In the Kentucky Senate race, Democrat challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes lost by a wide margin to Senator Mitch McConnell, and as such, gave a concession speech — one that the MSNBC election coverage team immediately tore apart.
Discussion:
Hot Air and PoliticusUSA
Washington Monthly:
The New Segregation — It's class, not race. And we know how to solve it. — Three years ago, Kelly Williams-Bolar, a poor, single mother, stood in a Summit County, Ohio, courtroom facing a number of felony charges, including one count of grand theft. Her crime: stealing an education …
Discussion:
Joanne Jacobs
Philip Klein / Washington Examiner:
27 senators who voted for Obamacare won't be part of new Senate — BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL CONGRESS OBAMACARE SENATE HEALTH CARE 2014 ELECTIONS — On Dec. 24, 2009, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed President Obama's healthcare law with a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority …
Timothy P. Carney / Washington Examiner:
Tonight's darker omen for the GOP: Losing the Senate in 2016 — BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL CONGRESS BARACK OBAMA REPUBLICAN PARTY 2014 ELECTIONS 2016 ELECTIONS CAMPAIGNS — However well Republicans do tonight, President Obama will retain a veto pen. That means GOP control of both chambers …
Discussion:
The Agonist
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Voters' verdict explodes Democratic myths — As Democratic losses mounted in Senate races across the country on election night, some liberal commentators clung to the idea that dissatisfied voters were sending a generally anti-incumbent message, and not specifically repudiating Democratic officeholders.
Niels Lesniewski / Roll Call:
Rand Paul: Let D.C. Legalize Marijuana, If Voters Want — BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — As District of Columbia voters are seemingly poised to approve a ballot item to allow cultivation and possession of small quantities of marijuana for personal use, the Republican in charge of a subpanel with D.C. oversight says home rule should prevail.
Discussion:
American Prospect, Washington Post, The Dish, NPR and Hit & Run
Mollie Hemingway / The Federalist:
Wendy Davis Was The Face Of ‘War On Women’ Politics. How'd That Go? — This was a year when the War on Women messaging — previously employed so successfully by the Democrats — failed to yield the desired results. Most of the discussions about that failure have focused on Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado.
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