>So while GOP candidates won a lot of races, GOP ideas lost a bunch.
That's very debatable.
On the minimum wage topic, here are the stats for the four states:
Alaska, from 7.75 to 9.75
Arkansas, from 6.25 to 8.50
Nebraska, from 7.25 to 9.00
South Dakota, from 7.25 to 8.50 and then adjusted for inflation
Remember that the president wanted to go to 10.10. From a CNN poll, 71% of Americans favor a minimum wage hike but only 36% support Obama's number. Most labor economists and the CBO agree that 10.10 would result in nearly half a million job losses, while the smaller raises
I don't agree with 10.10 either, but one can make the argument that it's necessary because of the damage done by this administration (and arguably the last one as well), just for lower income people to keep up.
So this was really a marginal argument at best.
On the personhood bills (which I definitely hate to see), the counter here is how much people in Texas and Colorado got tired of hearing "one-tricky pony" candidates Wendy Davis and Mark Udall. When the Denver Post endorses Gardner and you think about the things he has championed, that tells you how apocalyptically bad the Democratic candidate was.
On the pot votes, it's a myth that Republicans largely oppose legalization of marijuana. I'd estimate that about a third are OK with it, a third don't care, and a third oppose. Back in the 1980's National Review magazine (very conservative) ran a # of articles on legalizing pot. I dare say that if the welfare state were going in the other direction (as opposed to what we have now), even more Rs would be indifferent to legalizing pot.
I never said for one minute that the results yesterday were an affirmation of any benefits of the Republican party. But what is clear is that a very large number of people sent a message to this administration that they are tired of his act and the hubris and the incompetence of the yes-men who serve under him. Remember what Barack Obama said himself - elections matter, votes matter. I agree with him, yes they do.
There are so many key points last night....the fact that you have Republican governors in Illinois and Maryland...the fact that Democrats who used to carry about 80% of vote in metro areas only carried about 50-60% last night.....that you nearly had a monumental upset in Virginia that no one predicted.
This was no major leap, but I said (along with any others) at this time a year ago that over a dozen Democratic Senators were extremely frightened over the incompetence and arrogance being demonstrated by the White House and the impact it would have on the mid-term elections a year later. Well, fast forward to today, and we've seen the results. Kay Hagan's loss in NC is prime example. Wasn't hard to predict.
