memeorandum: The Dawn of the Age of McConnell (Evan Osnos/New Yorker)

10:45 AM ET, November 5, 2014

Top Items:

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.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Weekly Standard, Hot Air, Wall Street Journal, Taylor Marsh, rubber hose, Associated Press, Betsy's Page, NPR, The Daily Caller and The Mahablog

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

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

Carrie Budoff Brown / Politico:
No Obama pivot after midterms

Discussion: Liberaland and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

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

Peter Sullivan / The Hill:
Paul: Hillary Clinton ‘soundly rejected’

Discussion: Mediaite, Politico and Hit & Run

Washington Post: Newly empowered Republicans should set a course to deliver tangible results

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

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

Amy Walter / The Cook Political Report:

Election Night Takeaways — This wasn't just a bad night for Democrats. This was a downright drubbing. — So, what happened? — All Politics Is National: Democrats believed they could help isolate and insulate their vulnerable Democrats from an unpopular president by making each contest about the individual candidates.

New York Times:
Republicans' First Step Was to Handle Extremists in Party

Discussion: Bloomberg Politics and No More Mister Nice Blog

Justin Sink / The Hill:
After blowout, Obama to answer questions

Discussion: Politico and Political Wire

Kenneth P. Vogel / Politico:
Big win for conservative big money

Discussion: Seeing the Forest

Elana Schor / Politico:
Elections give Keystone a filibuster-proof majority

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Fox News:
Republicans take Senate majority, Fox News projects

Discussion: Hot Air, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, The Hill, CNN, 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

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: Talking Points Memo, Associated Press, The Daily Caller, 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

Noelle Crombie / Oregonian:

Recreational marijuana passes in Oregon: Oregon election results 2014 — Oregon voters said yes to marijuana Tuesday, making the state the third to allow the possession and sale of cannabis for recreational rather than strictly medical use. — The crowd at the Southeast Portland club Holocene …

Discussion: PBS, Anchorage Daily News, Washington Post, New York Magazine, Bloomberg Politics, Outside the Beltway and BuzzFeed

Dan Merica / CNN:
Oregon, Washington, D.C. legalize marijuana

Discussion: Bloomberg View, Bloomberg Politics, Wall Street Journal and Jezebel

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 …

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

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

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.

Discussion: Washington Post

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.