Election Takeaways from Charlie Cook
The week after any election there is a lot of back seat driving, with all manner of people explaining in retrospect what they generally didn't see in advance.
Here is the list from political guru Charlie Cook.
Tip O'Neill was wrong: all politics is national
Elections are always a referendum on the President
The Obama coalition does not work at the congressional level
It's the economy, stupid
You can't win on turnout if you don't have a message
Candidates matter
The war on women fell flat as did the war on the rich
Midterms rarely have any predictive value for the next presidential election.
Election Takeaways from Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein at the Vox also has a list of takeaways.
The Democrats lost in Iowa and Colorado and governor's races in blue states. That wasn't due to the map
Democrats had a couple of wins on the minimum wage, gun checks, and marijuana
Democrats believed all elections henceforth would be like 2012. Nope
The Republicans won tough gubernatorial races, which helps RGA chairman, Chris Christie
No Democratic star emerged to challenge Hillary Clinton in 2016
Republicans got a big boost for 2016, with a lot of senators and governors who will still be there
The Senate is about to be even more polarized
Congress might actually pass a few laws now, such as trade deals and the Keystone XL pipeline
Election Takeaways from Politico
James Hohmann at Politico has yet another list.
The Republican takeover of the South is complete now that it owns Arkansas
Democrats failed at distancing themselves from the President
Voters crave authenticity and hate phonies (see: Brown, Scott)
Republican governors thrived in blue states
Mary Landrieu's odds in the runoff have gone up since outside groups won't fund Bill Cassidy so much
The war on women fell flat
North Carolina is more reddish purple than bluish purple
Virginia is a purple state, not a blue one and Ed Gillespie could be the next governor
The $60 million Bannock Street project did not live up to the hype
Self funders like Bruce Rauner, David Perdue, and Rick Scott had a good night.
