Voters Punished Obama, Dems for Going Deaf

The Democratic Party should view its walloping in Tuesday's election as an opportunity to start listening before it's too late, writes Peggy Noonan. The Democrats have been focusing on the wrong issues since they gained power last year and that explains the huge swing to the Republicans in Virginia and New Jersey, Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal, dismissing the New York special election as "too messy."

Voters care a lot more about the impact the recession is having on their lives than about any big health-care package, writes Noonan, a fact that appears to have passed President Obama and his yes-men by. "What happened Tuesday isn't a death knell, but it is a fire alarm," Noonan writes. "Something's wrong, fix it, change course. Show humility. Bow to the public." (More Peggy Noonan stories.)