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:
New Yorker, Yahoo! News, CBS DC, Talking Points Memo, 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, Washington Post, Mediaite, John Hawkins' Right Wing News and Outside the Beltway
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
McConnell expected to woo King, Manchin — Two Senate sources say they expect Mitch McConnell (Ky.) to reach out to Independent Sen. Angus King (Maine) and centrist Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) about joining the Senate Republican Conference. — Republicans have a 52-seat Senate majority …
Discussion:
Political Wire
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:
Addicting Info and The Moderate Voice
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.
Discussion:
rubber hose
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 …
New York Times:
Republicans' First Step Was to Handle Extremists in Party
Republicans' First Step Was to Handle Extremists in Party
Discussion:
Bloomberg Politics and No More Mister Nice Blog
Elana Schor / Politico:
Elections give Keystone a filibuster-proof majority
Elections give Keystone a filibuster-proof majority
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway
Tom Williams / Roll Call:
McConnell, Boehner, Pelosi and Reid Invited to White House
McConnell, Boehner, Pelosi and Reid Invited to White House
Discussion:
National Review
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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David McCabe / The Hill:
Obama has lost nearly 70 House seats since taking office
John B. Judis / The New Republic:
Here's Why the Democrats Got Crushed—and Why 2016 Won't Be a Cakewalk
Here's Why the Democrats Got Crushed—and Why 2016 Won't Be a Cakewalk
Discussion:
Bloomberg View, New York Magazine, American Thinker, The Dish, Vox and New York Times
Carol E. Lee / Wall Street Journal:
For Obama, a Harsh Referendum
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
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Ezra Klein / Vox:
9 takeaways from the 2014 election — 1) The Democrats lost. — Badly. This wasn't just a tough map. Democrats lost Senate seats in Iowa and Colorado. They lost governor races in Florida and Wisconsin. Hell, they lost governor races in Illinois, Maryland, Maine, and Massachusetts!
Discussion:
National Review, IMAGINE 2050, The Great Debate, The Dish and Weekly Standard
Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
Republican Gains Grow as New Election Results Come In — The full magnitude of the Republican Party's success in reshaping the national political landscape at President Obama's expense became clearer Wednesday morning as the party seemed headed toward an even longer list of electoral victories …
Discussion:
TalkLeft, Guardian, Power Line and Gawker
Josh Kraushaar / National Journal:
Republicans Just Broke Democrats' Blue Wall
Amy Walter / The Cook Political Report:
Election Night Takeaways
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:
Gawker, Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, The Daily Caller and Outside the Beltway
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 and Bloomberg View
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John Podhoretz / New York Post:
A stunning tidal wave of change in the Senate
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:
The Daily Caller, The Hill and ABC News
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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, The New Republic 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
Politico:
Colorado to vote on personhood, again — On November 4, Colorado voters will vote on Amendment 67 which would change the criminal code to include ‘an unborn human being’ as a ‘person.’ Proponents argue the measure would protect pregnant women while opponents say it's a veiled abortion bill.
Discussion:
TheDenverChannel.com, Fox News, The Huffington Post, ThinkProgress and The Dish
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, Sunlight Foundation Blog, Associated Press, Washington Post, BizzyBlog, Talking Points Memo, Grist and Guardian
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
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, Yahoo! News, Wall Street Journal, American Spectator, Hot Air, The PJ Tatler and Outside the Beltway
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.