The Elections in NJ and Virginia had nothing to do with the President's Standing and other myths

Yeah, right. If you believe that you must also believe that Tinkerbell is real. In both Governor's races the President put his prestige on the line. He and his representatives were in both states a lot. In New Jersey the President visited into strongholds of democratic support in two areas on November 1. He and the first lady also made a series of visits to Virginia. Most news sources before the election argued that the President had made a substantial personal commitment in both races. The NYT described the victory by McDonnell as "decisive" and as a "sharp reversal" from the previous eight years. They also quoted exit polls which showed a significant shift among independent voters who went strongly for Obama in 2008 and strongly against Corzine and Deeds in 2009. The LA Times was so disoriented that its headline was the two democrat congressional victories. Down about a dozen paragraphs into the story, the Virginia governor's race is covered.

The new governor in Virginia won by an impressive 18 points. Chris Christi won by six, in a state where organizationally the dems are far in the lead. The exit polls seem to indicate that between 85 and 90% of the voters who think the direction of the country is wrong voted to McDonnell or Christi. The combined GOP vote (the GOP and CON lines) totaled 51% in the NY 23rd. If I were Bill Owens I would not rest easy.

Does this mean the President is losing his base? Yes and No. On this election night, were I a democrat elected to a traditionally GOP house seat, I would be worried. But if I were a GOP member of congress I would not begin to pick out majority offices just yet. It is clear the people are grumpy. The WP said McDonnell won his race by by "focusing almost exclusively on jobs, transportation and other kitchen table issues." That should be a strong message that all the extra stuff that the GOP added to the campaign tools were not helpful in electing people. But the polling also seems to have said that the president's health care plan is also a loser. It turned voters off. It is clear that the President has lost some of his luster. But it is not clear that the GOP has a coherent answer. Deeds was a lackluster candidate. Corzine was both corrupt and a tax raiser of immense proportions. So the claim that the elections were influenced by local factors is also correct. But CNN's Wolf Blitzer outlandish claim that the results did not reflect on the position of the president is just silly.