GOP 2nd Wind Doesn't Mean Smooth Sailing

Deficits were the rallying cry for yesterday's winners

(NEWSER) - "Conservatives have supposedly gotten their groove back," Peter Beinart writes about the results of yesterday's state races, "but it's not the same old groove." The candidates who won—or almost won—downplayed social issues and focused on the economy, which Beinart calls the “new culture war." Sure, a “jihad against deficit spending” isn’t a particularly coherent position when spending and stimulus are keeping the country afloat. But “economic fury” brings in votes, and it’s something the entire country can understand. More»

Polling guru gives a post-mortem on last night's elections

(NEWSER) - The numbers are in, now it's time to make sense of them. Nate Silver breaks down last night's election results:

• Don’t blame Obama; Creigh Deeds and Jon Corzine were probably just weak candidates. In New Jersey, 57% of voters approved of Obama, but 27% of those supporters voted Republican anyway. In Virginia 20% of those who approved of Obama voted GOP.
• Democrats had turnout problems in Virginia; the voters who came out last night supported McCain 51-43 in 2008, a mirror image of that year's margin.

New name may have greater pull than tainted Repub label

(NEWSER) - Candidates on both sides are doing their best to hide their party affiliation but it's the Republicans who have the most to worry about, writes Nate Silver . "The Democratic brand is marginal in about half the country, but the Republican brand is radioactive in about two-thirds of it ," Silver writes at FiveThirtyEight.com. It might even be time, Silver notes, for the party to consider rebranding itself "the Conservatives." More»

Troupe threatens to sue Republican over pirated video footage

(NEWSER) - Republican Chris Christie holds a razor-thin lead over incumbent Jon Corzine in the New Jersey governor's race, and now he has five more potential opponents—the members of Monty Python, who are considering suing the former US Attorney for violating their copyright. An online ad the campaign swiftly yanked from its websites after the Huffington Post blew the whistle uses footage of Michael Palin without credit. More»

Conservative gets a boost, but maybe not a very big one

(NEWSER) - Republican Dede Scozzafava's surprise decision to suspend her congressional race in New York leaves Conservative Doug Hoffman to battle Democrat Dan Owens. Here's what the political blogosphere is saying:

• Nate Silver , FiveThirtyEight: "Gun to my head? Sure, I'd take Hoffman at this point." But it's not that cut and dried: Most conservative Republicans had already defected to Hoffman, so the gain may not be that big.