Two big questions loom in the wake of the 2009 elections. The first is whether Barack Obama learned anything new about American voters. The second is whether American voters will soon learn something new about Obama.
For a president who likes always to convey confidence and cool, the returns will test his willingness and capacity for self-critique and self-correction.
So far, Obama’s White House has responded to the results — flaming defeats for Democratic gubernatorial nominees in Virginia and New Jersey, along with better news in the N.Y. 23 special congressional election — exclusively with self-justification.
Obama himself did not mention the elephant in the room Wednesday in public appearances in Wisconsin. His silence came even though he had immersed himself heavily in the New Jersey race in particular, only to see incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine lose a traditionally Democratic state.
National polls for months have shown deep unease among independent voters about Washington spending and about the expansiveness of Democratic proposals. So it was not fully a surprise when, in both New Jersey and Virginia, these voters swung wildly from Obama in 2008 to Republicans this time, according to exit polls.
Two groups that helped carry Obama over the top were largely absent in this election cycle, the young and the minorities basically sat this one out. With Obama not being on the ballot in 2010, I would expect simliar apathy and that will hurt dems as much as the independent swing as those two groups voted overwhelmingly dem.
You mean college kids that for the most part do not pay a dime in taxes and Blacks not minorities. Yes they both did not show up and will not show up for most local state elections. If the Dems had a Black candidate, take it to the bank that they would have won. Blacks never vote for the white punk unless told to do so by black leaders who have their palms greased a little. Did not happen this time around for the Dems. They should have known better.
