Why the Midterms Don't Mean Anything At All

The Republican gains in the November 2, 2010 mid-terms don’t mean anything for seven reasons:
1) The party in power gets walloped in every midterm; these numbers are actually not historic.
2) Incumbents in general get walloped when the economy is in dire straits, which again, is not a great political indicator.
3) The house was disproportionately flush with democrats who rode Obama’s coattails in 2008, this was a foreseeable self-correction.
4) The Republicans failed to capture the senate, which many Republicans predicted. Hell, they couldn’t even beat Harry Reid, who is less appealing than a flesh eating virus. The senate has, historically, greater stability than the Senate; the Republican’s failure to win it shows not only a moving bar measuring success, but a show of proof that larger, less “particularized” voting blocks are not engaging in a referendum on Obama.
5) The Blue Dog democrats were obliterated, and two-third of the tea-party candidates lost their races. This means the election was not a clear move right, or to the center. What does it mean, if not a move right or center? See numbers 1 and 2.
6) The Republicans don’t have a plan. Really, they don’t. “The Pledge to America” is cutting taxes and repealing health care. Democrats have cut taxes for middle-America already, in the Stimulus and in general. That means the only tax cuts left are for those making $250,000 or more. And repealing the healthcare bill would take a sizeable majority in both the house and the senate, which the Republicans do not have. In fact, Republicans can’t do anything they want because they don’t have both houses.
7) The Republicans had a “take their ball and go home” attitude before the midterms, using the Senate’s filibuster to stop every piece of legislation they could. Having the house doesn’t even mean they can stop more legislation. From a practical standpoint it really doesn’t change anything.

So, there you have it. The win is a historically predictable midterm election in a flagging economy, and the Republicans lack the power to do anything. And since Republicans stopped all they could with the filibuster, the gains in the house aren’t a game changer. It just means that the next two years are a wash. Two more years of watching Obama continue to reach out to Republicans and get scorned for it will help all the Democrats along with Obama in 2012.