If Owens win I would not be surprised if the MSM glosses over it even though they made such a big deal of the race. I really want Owens to win, I'm pissed at Christie's win. Corzine wasn't any better, but dang New Jersey!

but that's going to be a tough sell.

Obviously! This is just like in 2001 when the Dems' big wins in VA and NJ signaled the end of the Bush presidency. Nothing captures the nation's imagination like a local race primarily about transportation policy, so Obama should expect to get soundly thumped in 2004 just as Bush was put out of his misery by John Kerry.

And certainly, I expect to see the media give Obama the same treatment they gave Bush when they spent weeks insisting that the earth-shaking rise of Jim McGreevey meant it was imperative that he dramatically scale back his plans to invade Iraq and reform education policy.

Corzine and Bloomberg are banksters - Corzine loses and Bloomberg's win was much closer than anybody expected. The message the Administration should take is to get tough on Wall St, it's a political winner.

It's funny how nobody in the MSM is talking about NY-23 anymore. Fox was 24/7 Hoffman in the days leading up to the election...

What can Obama say? He can point to NY-23, which was a repudiation of the R powers to be as much as NJ and VA were repudiations of the D powers to be, that people are sick of Washington putting the American people number 2 in the big scheme of things.

I don't know if this is true since Sully said it, but apparently DFA was forbidden by the White House to say anything about the gay marriage issue. I don't know if it's close enough to wonder if that would have swayed people or not.

How Will Obama Respond To GOP Wins?

You have got to be kidding me. Did TPM morph into Politico when I wasn't looking?

How does the loss of a highly unpopular incumbent in Jersey and a Republican win in a swing state that has swung back and forth between parties, depending on which one is not in the White House, constitute a "Red Tide?"

This is the kind of conventional wisdom bullshit I would expect form a Chris Matthews or a Wolf Blitzer. I thought you guys were better.

If Obama had already gotten health care reform passed by Congress, the Democrats would have won in NJ and may have won in VA.

Is this TPM or Redstate? The Dems lost 2 governorships that have no impact on the federal level, gained a house seat that has been republican for over a century, and held on to another house seat in CA. Yeah, a real lousy night.

"Red Tide?"

The Democrats won two Congressional races tonight --one that has been Republican-held for 100 years!

I sure do hope this is a sign of what's to come in 2010...

Anyone dumb enough to buy into the MSA nonsense about these two governors' races being won by Republicans somehow being a referendum on Obama should not be working as a journalist.

hope it was paper ballots..

no more election coverups.

http://www.wanttoknow.info/electionscoverups

The wins of GOP governors will be unfortunate for the people of Virginia and New Jersey. If the people of these states thought they had it bad under Democratic governors, they have seen nothing yet. Republican politicians will not deliver the change these people seek but instead will impede it delivering more good and services to big corporations and insurance companies which will only continue the decay of these states.

The democrats in my very red city in SC both won. Is that a referendum on Obama and have the people here become pro Obama? Hardly. They were better candidates than the Republicans, and sadly I still live in a city and state that would vote in most any GOP just because they have an R by their names.

The idea that these races mean much other than the GOP ran better candidates in both states, is ridiculous. I was surprised to see the headline on TPM.

hi ,How does the loss of a highly unpopular incumbent in Jersey and a Republican win in a swing state that has swung back and forth between parties, depending on which one is not in the White House, constitute a Red Tide.

attorney

Moremony

If Virginia and New Jersey voted these guys in, look out. Maybe they should go to Tim Pawlenty for advice on how to run a state into the ground. New Jersey and Virginia have enough problems without adding these poor choices to lead them out of a bad economy and a jobless recovery. They will likely make sure the flags fly, no gays marry, no abortions happen, ACORN is chased out, and everyone except immigrants gets a gun.

One quick comment from afar about Virginia:

McDonnell tracked toward the center and ran a generally positive campaign while Deeds ran a lousy campaign.

A few things to understand about the New Jersey race:

Christie went from a 19-point lead in the polls a few months ago to a 4-point win last night.

Despite his pro-insurance company, anti-choice rhetoric, Christie will have to govern as a Whitman, Kean, Cahill Republican, not the kind that hard-right primary voters would pick. Given his nutball primary opponent, Steve Lonergan, the fact that he was the nominee at all shows that NJ Republicans are much more centrist than their counterparts in the Confederacy. His win could make the center-right divide among Republicans even deeper.

The hard right, led by Lonergan also opposed the only public question on the ballot,a bond issue to enable expansion of the state's Open Space program. The question passed.

At last count, I could not find a single assembly district, senate district or mayoralty that switched parties. The Democrats still control the legislature as much as they did yesterday.

The only part of Christie's agenda that he has any chance of enacting relates to cutting state government spending. The Democratic Legislature won't let his social issues agenda, if it even exists, get off the ground.

If Christie doesn't deliver on reducing property taxes and bringing jobs to New Jersey very fast, voters will turn on him as fast and as hard as they turned on Corzine. The irony is that the strongest governor's office in the country has very little power to influence either. New Jersey's high property taxes are the rsesult of home rule run amok and New Jerseyans are only now starting to face that fact.

Here's the lesson I hope the White House learns: We are too passive and we are wasting our mandate. Running away from health care and the public option makes people think the Dems don't know what they want or what they are doing (both accurate, naturally). I fear, however, that Obama will draw the opposite lesson: We have been too progressive and have frightened people with our radical agenda.

Oh well, there may well be a third party soon and maybe a fourth too. Both the Repubs and Dems are cracking wide open. The difference, of course, is that the Dems are in power so they are truly pathetic.

I would expect this headline or question from Huffpo but not TPM. This is a ridiculous question. Why arent' we touting the win in Ny-23 is what I want to know? Maybe the headline should be what does Sarah Palin and the crazies think about the loss in NY-23?

I am so disappointed in TPM. Slowly but surely getting to be another huffington post

Obama will continue to do what he's been doing for months, cower and capitulate. Bad mouth progressives and praise the Lieberman's of the world.

Everyone knows that Dems must move to the center to govern, don't they?

Check out The Daily Beast. All about VA and NJ not a word about Ny-23

Am I the only one freaked out by the photo showing the McDonnell "Stepford" Family? Virginia proves it really IS for Lovers; it loves pain.

As a New Jerseyan who followed the race closely (and even voted, although I just voted once...), I am not sure why the Obama camp thought Corzine would win. It was going to be tough and although I don't like Corzine, I voted for him as the lesser of two evils. Remember, Christie is the guy who is going to allow out-of-state health insurers in, so that state mandates on health care can be circumvented.
It wasn't about Obama although we are about to be hit over the head by the Republicans that it was just that. People really, really disliked Jon Corzine.
And to wake up to Eric Cantor's snarky smile on the Today Show made me want to hide for a few years.

As a long-time resident of New Jersey, I'm pissed off and frightened. Corzine was an unpleasant person but he had a real grasp of the issues. Christie is a doofus who knows nothing at all about the problems he's facing - he's a liar and an ignoramus (hmmm...remind you of anyone?) I work in healthcare and am sure Christie's "programs" will lead to hospital closings and a worsening of New Jerseyans' health. People don't want to pay taxes, but they don't to lose the programs those taxes pay for. Corzine was honest enough to admit that; Christie doesn't even understand it. And New Jersey will pay the price for giving the governorship to a totally inadequate candidate.