Top Items:
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:
Yahoo! News, New Yorker, Talking Points Memo, CBS DC, Outside the Beltway, OnPolitics, Politico, Guardian and Business Insider
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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:
Politico, Power Line, The Hill, Hit & Run, The Atlantic Online, Mediaite, BillMoyers.com, RedState, The Rothenberg Political … and emptywheel
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:
Christian News …, Lawfare, Mediaite, Washington Post, John Hawkins' Right Wing News and Outside the Beltway
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
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
‘Hundred-year majority’ for House GOP? — Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, proclaimed Wednesday that Republicans may have built a “hundred-year majority” in the House. — “We're as back to a majority as any of us have seen in our lifetimes.
Nate Cohn / New York Times:
The Democrats' Southern Problem Reaches a New Depth — For generations, Southern Democratic politicians could count on doing better at the ballot box than the national party, which had long been abandoned in the South in presidential elections. No longer.
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
What really went wrong for Democrats — The most common explanation we're hearing for the GOP sweep of a dozen Senate races last night is that an already-treacherous map for Democrats was made a lot worse by the failure of core Dem voter groups to show up. — But multiple Democratic …
Discussion:
Firedoglake
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
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 …
Ezra Klein / Vox:
9 takeaways from the 2014 election
Discussion:
National Review, IMAGINE 2050, The Dish and Weekly Standard
New York Times:
Republicans' First Step Was to Handle Extremists in Party
Discussion:
Bloomberg Politics and No More Mister Nice Blog
Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
Republican Gains Grow as New Election Results Come In
Discussion:
TalkLeft, Guardian, Power Line and Gawker
Elana Schor / Politico:
Elections give Keystone a filibuster-proof majority
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway
Tom Williams / Roll Call:
McConnell, Boehner, Pelosi and Reid Invited to White House
Discussion:
National Review
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, Hot Air, The Daily Caller and Outside the Beltway
David McCabe / The Hill:
Obama has lost nearly 70 House seats since taking office — President Obama has lost nearly 70 seats in the House since taking office and more seats in midterm elections than any president since Harry Truman. — Democrats have suffered a net loss of at least 69 House seats since 2008 …
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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.
David Wasserman / The Cook Political Report:
First Impressions: Historic GOP House Majority — It's hard to overstate House Democrats' bad night. By all measures, Republicans enjoyed an historic night, exceeding pre-election expectations across the country. There are fewer than ten races where the outcome is in some doubt …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly and New York Times
David Levenson / The Daily Beast:
NBC's Today Show ‘Hires’ Pippa Middleton — After rumored courting by both ABC and NBC, Pippa Middleton is reportedly inking a deal to become a Today correspondent. Buckingham Palace may not be amused. — NBC News, which has an expensive affection for royalty—whether British or American …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, The Daily Banter, Mediaite and The Daily Caller
Ross Douthat / New York Times:
The Evaporating Democratic Majority — “For Republicans, what counts as victory?” I asked in my pre-election post, and now we have an answer: This counts. Control of the Senate with room to spare, easy victories in what were supposed to be tight purple-state races and even easier victories in red states …
Discussion:
Business Insider, The Dish and Bloomberg View
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 …
Discussion:
Questions and Observations
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, Associated Press, Washington Post, BizzyBlog, Talking Points Memo and Guardian
Neil Irwin / New York Times:
Lessons for Obama's Final Two Years From Reagan, Clinton and Bush — A president in the final two years of an eight-year run in the White House. Congress held by an opposing party that loathes the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. A staff that is depleted and exhausted by six-plus years of governing.
ABC News:
Meet Elise Stefanik, the Youngest Woman Ever Elected to Congress … Republican Elise Stefanik has become the youngest woman elected to Congress in history, winning her race against Aaron Woolf in New York's 21st open district 56-32, ABC News projects. — She's the first Republican to win the district …
Discussion:
The College Fix, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! News, The PJ Tatler, American Spectator, Hot Air and Outside the Beltway
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
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:
The Huffington Post, ThinkProgress, Hit & Run, Truth Revolt and Bloomberg Politics
Andrew Restuccia / Politico:
Tom Steyer, greens have rough night at the polls — For Tom Steyer and other environmentalists, $85 million wasn't enough to help Democrats keep the Senate blue or win more than a single governor's mansion in Tuesday's toughest races. — The billionaire's super PAC and other green groups saw …
Discussion:
Power Line, National Journal, The Daily Caller, The Hill and ABC News
Denver Post:
HICKENLOOPER POISED TO DEFEAT BEAUPREZ FOR COLORADO GOVERNOR — Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper was in a strong position to win re-election early Wednesday morning in a year that saw Republican gains across the state and nation. — Ten hours after the polls closed, Hickenlooper rebounded …
Discussion:
TalkLeft, Talking Points Memo and Washington Post
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