Top Items:
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:
JustOneMinute, National Review, The Dish and Weekly Standard
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Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
The Democrats Have Two Choices Now: Gridlock or Annihilation — Well, that could have gone better. — Shares — A cardinal fact of American politics that has emerged during the Obama years is that demographic forces are slowly and inexorably driving the electorate leftward.
Discussion:
Hit & Run, Washington Post and National Review
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.
Matthew Yglesias / Vox:
Mitch McConnell may be the greatest strategist in contemporary politics — Mitch McConnell's reelection tonight wasn't very newsworthy. Polls had shown clearly for weeks that Allison Lundergan Grimes was far behind, and far behind is where you would expect a Democrat to be in Kentucky …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, The Great Debate and The Atlantic Online
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Reid: Why can't we all just ... get along? — Consider this karma avoidance by the soon-to-be-ex-Senate Majority Leader, but Harry Reid's new act won't fool anyone, least of all Mitch McConnell. Reid has run the US Senate for the past eight years like a dictatorship, steadily eroding minority privileges …
Discussion:
The Hill, RedState, Washington Post, Mediaite and Politico
Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Meet The Real Next Senate Majority Leader: Ted Cruz
Meet The Real Next Senate Majority Leader: Ted Cruz
Discussion:
Addicting Info and The Atlantic Online
Josh Kraushaar / National Journal:
Republicans Just Broke Democrats' Blue Wall
Republicans Just Broke Democrats' Blue Wall
Discussion:
Conservatives4Palin
Nicholas Confessore / New York Times:
Outside Groups With Deep Pockets Lift G.O.P. — Last fall, Steven Law, the president of the nation's largest Republican “super PAC,” met with two of his party's biggest donors in a Houston office. Both had given generously to Mr. Law's organization, American Crossroads …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
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Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
‘Hundred-year majority’ for House GOP?
‘Hundred-year majority’ for House GOP?
Discussion:
American Power, rubber hose and Shakesville
New York Times:
Negativity Wins the Senate
Negativity Wins the Senate
Discussion:
Lawfare, Christian News …, Mediaite, Liberal Values, Washington Post, John Hawkins' Right Wing News and Outside the Beltway
John Podhoretz / New York Post:
A stunning tidal wave of change in the Senate
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:
Washington Monthly and Firedoglake
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John B. Judis / The New Republic:
Here's Why the Democrats Got Crushed—and Why 2016 Won't Be a Cakewalk — Barack Obama has been elected president twice, but his party has now gotten drubbed in the two midterm elections held during his presidency. He will face a Republican Senate and House.
Discussion:
Bloomberg View, Power Line, American Power, ThinkProgress, New York Magazine, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Dish and Vox
Ed O'Keefe / Washington Post:
Joe Manchin on election results: ‘This is a real ass-whuppin’ — Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W. Va.) did not mince words on Wednesday when asked to describe the historic losses by congressional Democrats. — “This is a real ass-whuppin,” he said. — Manchin is a moderate first-term senator …
Discussion:
Power Line, Talking Points Memo and Mediaite
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Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
McConnell expected to woo King, Manchin
McConnell expected to woo King, Manchin
Discussion:
Politico, The Daily Caller and Liberaland
Betsy Woodruff / Slate:
Wisconsin Three-Peat — Why no one can beat Scott Walker. — WEST ALLIS, Wisconsin—"First off, I want to thank God." — Gov. Scott Walker had just come on stage at the State Fair Exposition Center to give his third victory speech in four years, and the supporters mashed up in front of the stage were totally losing it.
Discussion:
Althouse
Washington Post:
Transcript: President Obama's Nov. 5 news conference on midterm election results — President Obama held a news conference Nov. 5 at the White House to discuss the results of the midterm congressional elections . — PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good afternoon, everybody. Have a seat.
Discussion:
Althouse, The Federalist, Los Angeles Times, Hit & Run, National Review and Patterico's Pontifications
Steven Hayward / Power Line:
Climate Change? An Issue for Losers — Ross Douthat nails it in his NY Times blog post-mortem: … Andrew Restuccia notes in Politico: … Will Bunch in the Philadelphia Daily News: … The Keystone pipeline appears to have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, according to the National Journal:
Discussion:
National Journal
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Andrew Restuccia / Politico:
Tom Steyer, greens have rough night at the polls
Tom Steyer, greens have rough night at the polls
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, ABC News and The Hill
Ross Douthat / New York Times:
The Evaporating Democratic Majority
The Evaporating Democratic Majority
Discussion:
Conservatives4Palin, Business Insider and Bloomberg View
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:
The Daily Caller, The Dish, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, Gawker 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.
Kris Maher / Wall Street Journal:
West Virginia Elects America's Youngest State Lawmaker — A West Virginia University freshman who did most of her campaigning out of her dorm room became the youngest state lawmaker in the nation Tuesday. — Republican Saira Blair, a fiscally conservative 18-year-old …
Discussion:
Mediaite, Business Insider, Gawker, Jezebel, fox13now.com, The Daily Caller and NPR
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Katherine Connell / National Review:
Democrats Sink to Pre-Great Depression Levels in State Legislatures
Democrats Sink to Pre-Great Depression Levels in State Legislatures
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog and Clayton Cramer
Jay / Miami Herald & MiamiHerald.com:
Alex Rodriguez's DEA confession: Yes, I used steroids from fake Miami doctor — › — ‹ — For 21 tumultuous months, New York Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez has defiantly maintained he never used banned substances from a Coral Gables anti-aging clinic …
Discussion:
New York Times, Truth Revolt, New York Magazine, abc11.com and The Daily Caller
Rebecca Leber / The New Republic:
Congratulations, Voters. You Just Made This Climate Denier the Most Powerful Senator on the Environment. — In handing Republicans control of the Senate on Tuesday, Americans effectively voted for the party's hostile plans against President Barack Obama's environmental legacy.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Little Green Footballs, Raw Story and Hit & Run
Harold Meyerson / American Prospect:
The Democrats' Catastrophe and the Need For a New Agenda — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, joined by his wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, celebrates with his supporters at an election night party in Louisville,Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money and Seeing the Forest
Philip Bump / Washington Post:
The 2014 electorate wasn't just older and whiter than 2012. It also voted more Republican. — Based on preliminary exit poll data Tuesday night, we were able to say with some certainty how the 2014 electorate compared with 2012 and 2010. In short: It had more white, older voters — the sort of voters more likely to vote Republican.
Discussion:
National Review and Bloomberg View