Dems Fall To Rethugs

It was a big night for the Rethuglicans, who won almost all of the expected contests in their red states, and managed to beat Dem candidates in purple or blue states as well.  The body count was staggering:  losses of incumbent Dem Governorships in Massachusetts, Maryland, and Illinois, and the U.S. Senate flipping to the Republicans with incumbent Dem defeats in North Carolina, Colorado, Arkansas, and (probably) Alaska.  House Rethugs add another 12 seats roughly.

What were presumed to be tight races turned out not to be, like Kentucky where human/turtle hybrid Sen. Mitch "Missy" McConnell easily won over Alison Lundergan Grimes, and Georgia, where David Perdue avoided a runoff election by defeating Dem Michelle Nunn by getting over 50% of the vote.  Hog castrator Joni Ernst appears to have beaten Dem opponent Bruce "Not Bailey" Braley by a decent margin.  The election results mean we'll have to endure the likes of Gov. Rick "Voldemort" Scott in Florida, Gov. Scott "I'd Like To Buy The World A Koch" Walker in Wisconsin, and new Governors plutocrat Bruce Rauner in Illinois, Charlie "The Fish Tale" Baker in Massachusetts and Larry "Gun Ho" Hogan in Maryland.  Great.

So let the second guessing and finger pointing begin.  For starters, we've often noted the Dems don't talk about their successes, and ceded the field to the Rethugs and their dark money allies.  Maybe it didn't occur to them that an increasingly robust recovery, lower unemployment, lower gas prices, affordable health care, pension funds replenished, etc. might appeal to the voters.  Hand it to the Rethugs, though:  they nationalized the election, diverted attention from their candidates' extreme positions, and managed to play the political press with "gotcha" issues about their opponents.

BONUS:  Jon Stewart's take on the midterms: "...the Democrats’ strategy seemed to be — again, I’m not a political strategist — curling up in a ball and hoping you didn’t kick them in the face too hard?”

BONUS II:  It didn't hurt the Rethuglicans that voter suppression worked in reducing normally low Dem turnout further.

BONUS III:  Both Charlie Pierce and Kos take the President to task (as we do, too) for the numbnut decision to hold off on executive action on immigration until after the election in order to "save" several conservaDem Senate seats.  That didn't turn out so good, did it?