the electoral winds of change...and...the agony of defeat ?...early returns seem to suggest...a bloodbath for the democRATS...in the 2010 elections...so says...The American Thinker...

All eyes, for now, are focused on the gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey. Will those races be referenda on Obama and the Democrats? Yes, to some extent they will. If Republican candidates win those two races, that reflects upon the Democratic Party and its national leader. But off the national media radar, there are plenty of other smaller elections -- special elections for state legislative seats -- which already show serious political problems for the Democrats.

The following list shows: (1) a particular state legislative seat which has held a special election in 2009; for example, the first race listed is the election results for the 89th District of the Maine House of Representatives, (2) the percentage of the vote that the Republican candidate running in that district received in the 2008 general election last November, and (3) the percentage of the vote that the Republican candidate received in a special election this year in the very same state legislative district.


State/District
GOP Vote 11/08
GOP Vote 2009 Special Election
Change

Maine House (89)
33%
66%
GOP +33%

New Hampshire Senate (3)
50%
68%
GOP +18%

South. Carolina House (30)
45%
54%
GOP +9%

New Hampshire House (4)
49%
62%
GOP +13%

Pennsylvania House (124)
68%
70%
GOP + 2%

Alabama Senate (7)
34%
67%
GOP +33%

Delaware Senate (19)
0%
63%
GOP +63%

Florida Senate (28)
62%
77%
GOP +15%

Tennessee House (62)
45%
67%
GOP +22%

Oklahoma House (65)
0%
56%
GOP +56%


The data speaks for itself: in the very same legislative districts, Republican candidates have been doing much better in special elections after Obama took office than Republican candidates did in November 2008, when large numbers of black voters and young voters turned out to elect Obama. The big jump for Republican candidates appears in Red states (Oklahoma, Alabama, South Carolina, and Tennessee), in Blue states (Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maine), and in Purple states (Florida and New Hampshire.)

These little elections across the nation confirm what polling data trends have shown: the nation as a whole is moving away from the Democratic Party and toward the Republican Party; the intensity of Republican voters these days is greater than Democrat voters; and these reach across all parts of the nation.

Some of the Republican wins are real eye-openers. Republicans have never had a state representative from Oklahoma's 65th District and Delaware's 19th Senate District has been represented by Democrats for a long time. Democrat dominance had been so strong in those two districts that Republicans did not even field candidates in the 2008 general election. The 30th House District in South Carolina had not been represented by a Republican in thirty years. In several of these races, Republicans lost the state legislative race in November 2008 and then captured the seat in a 2009 special election.

The tea leaves from these little races all over the nation should hearten Republicans and trouble Democrats. Other recent elections, like the surprising Republican win in the Albuquerque mayoral race earlier this month, confirm this trend. Democrats tried hard, when polls in Albuquerque showed that a Republican might actually make the runoff election, to bolster the Democrat front runner. These efforts failed. In yet another Purple state, voters in the largest city in the state have moved away from the Democratic Party and embraced the Republican Party.

But on November 3, 2009, both political parties will know quite a bit more about the strength and consistency of these trends toward the Republican Party. While voters in New Jersey and Virginia are choosing their governors, voters in those states will also be electing state legislatures. If Republicans, who only control one of the four legislative chambers in those two states now, make major gains and maybe capture a legislative chamber in Virginia or New Jersey, that is very good news for Republicans. Virginians will also be electing other statewide elected officials, like Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General, Republican victories, and particularly the size of Republican victories, will tell a great deal about whether Virginia is a Red state once more.

But the careful political eye will look at state legislative races on November 3rd in other states. Alabama, Michigan, South Carolina, Georgia, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Washington will all have special state legislative races on the first Tuesday in November. If Republicans do well in these races, then a general Republican trend will receive powerful new evidence. Republicans, to be sure, will need to stand for something positive and principled. But right now it seems that the average Obama voter in 2008 is, today, apathetic, troubled, and wavering.

I suspect that the big issue is that much of America has realized that they made a huge mistake in trying to force history and voting for someone based on their race rather then their accomplishments, much the same way the Nobel Prize committee did by giving Obama the Peace Prize even though he had only been elected 2 weeks prior to the closing of nominations.
Having said that - I do not live in the United States of America and my country has it's own political nightmares to deal with at the moment...hopefully we will learn a lesson and not make the same mistakes in the future.
Unfortunately I think it will be a long long time before we see another great President or in my case Prime Minister who will lead us into the future with a renewed pride in our countries.

till the Repubs embrace Ron Paul and those like him, they're doomed.

yes in dee-dee! Thats why no one is responding here---there's little diff between the two parties---

Yep, not much difference between the Demopublicans.

No, just bored with the constant assumptions about Obama Voters.

My apologies if you thought I was saying that everyone who voted for Obama voted for him because he was a visible minority. My conclusion is based purely on the media hype prior to the election when 9 out of 10 people interviewed who stated that they were voting Obama said they were doing so to "be a part of history", and some just plain said it was because they wanted a "black", man in office.

Don't get me wrong - I think you were screwed no matter what candidate was offered...Obama was in waaaaaaaaay over his head, McCain was just another good ole' boy looking to pad the pockets of his "friends", Clinton is slightly psychotic and never would have stood a chance in politics if it wasn't for her philandering husband who made it look like she was the real power behind the throne and Palin...what can I say about Palin....she's hot for a politician, love a woman willing to wear hip waders to an interview :)

No assumptions about the obama voters---there just as lost as the Bush or McCain voters---There are other options---