Election 2009 Commentary

The one thing clear from last night's results is President Obama can get people to come out and vote for him but if he is not on the ballot forget it. That is a bad omen for the Democrats next year.

Obama spent a fair amount of time in New Jersey and while he was less conspicuous in Virginia it is not like he was completely absent.

Now, the left is focusing on NY 23 in fact I just saw David Axelrod try to claim NY 23 was a microcosm of the national debate and how it favored the Democrats and the other two were strictly local races and did not reflect on the national debates.

Now, here is why David Axelrod is wrong about NY 23. Hoffman lost the race 49%-45% with Dede Scazzofava taking about 5.5% of the vote. In my earlier post on this I pass on a report by Jim Geraghty that Hoffman was absolutely clueless on issues of direct concern to the NY 23. That is, it is much more arguable that NY 23 was decided on local issues rather than national ones.

Now, last night on FNC on Hannity's show they had a focus group run by Frank Luntz. One man in the room stoutly declared his vote on the Virginia governor's race was only that. However, the rest of the discussion in that "focus group" was IMO unfocused and allowed Luntz and Hannity to say whatever they wanted.

One last thing. A lot of people were indignant about Scazzofava endorsing Owens after she left the race. Why does anyone expect her to do otherwise? The Republican Party cut her off at the insistence of the base activists -- loyalty is a two way street.