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How the night — and morning — are playing out on Twitter
Headlines from around the world today: ... Israel's Ha'aretz: "How will the Republican-controlled House affect U.S.-Israel ties? ... UAE's The National: "Democrats Lose House but Keep Senate" ... South Africa's Mail & Guardian: "Republicans deal stinging rebuke to Obama" ... Argentina's Buenos Aires Herald: "Republicans overtake Lower House while Democrats manage to retain control in Senate" ... Austrailia's Sydney Morning Herald: "Symbol of change as Tea Party darling rides conservative groundswell" ... Britain's BBC: "Republicans to fight Obama Agenda" ... Canada's Globe and Mail: "Republicans retake House, vow to repeal Obama health care overhaul" ... Pakistan's Dawn: "US Republicans win House, gain in Senate" ... Lebanon's The Daily Star: "US Voters Poised to Punish Obama's Democratic Party in mid-terms polls" ... China's South China Morning Post: "Republicans Claim House Majority" ... Qatar's The Peninsula: "Republicans Eye Control of Congress" ... India's Hindustan Times: "Change yourself: Obama gets message from voters" ... Al Jazeera English: "Republicans Sweep US house" ... Mexico's The News: "New politicians, same grim reality"
The nuclear power lobby is more angry that the Yucca Mountain-hating Harry Reid kept his seat than they are happy that the nuke-friendly GOP has a hand in energy policy. With no place to bury the waste, the industry can't do squat.
How Latino votes delivered a win in Nevada, momentum in California, and an electoral edge for Democrats for years to come
Sullivan relays some perceptive questions and answers between Outside the Beltway's Steven Taylor and his readers on what would constitute a convincing demonstration that the Tea Party has altered the GOP's behavior -- and what Tea Party candidates will have to do to demonstrate that they take fiscal responsibility seriously.
Think voting no on health care helped conservative Democrats? Think again. Democratic health
care detractors did worse than the general caucus, although they did worse
in tougher districts for Democrats. Republicans won 55 percent
of the House, and 65 percent of the races against Democratic dissenters
on health care.
How not to spend $140 million: The Wire on "What Loss of Competent, Uber-Rich Meg Whitman Says About American Politics"
In a press call, Sen. and DSCC Chair Robert Menendez managed to spin his party's crushing losses last night as an unprecedented historical triumph for Democrats. "We actually beat history last night," Menendez said. "Since 1930, every time the House has switched control, the Senate has switched control. We beat that history last night by keeping a Democratic majority in the Senate. ... I think we had good night considering the history against us and the economic challenges that we inherited and worked assiduously to turn around." Majority Leader Harry Reid as well as Sens. Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer were also on the call, expressing their hope to work with the expanded Republican minority to push key legislation forward.
Sullivan has reader reax on Proposition 19.
Michael Bennet declares victory in CO after a long Election Night/Following Day. Networks, however, haven't called it in his favor, and his Tea-Party-backed opponent Ken Buck hasn't conceded. CNN results show Bennet leading 793,164 votes to 777,726, with 90 percent reporting. Automatic recount is triggered if the margin falls below .5 percent (calculated, in CO, by dividing the difference by the winning candidate's total). Right now, the margin is 1.7 percent calculated that way. If the losing candidate requests a recount, both state parties have told the Denver Post they have legal teams in place to fight it out.
Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) tweets: "Actual good news for Dems: FL initiative creating independent redistricting board passes. FL had been one of most pro-GOP gerrymanders."
The president loses hawkish Dems and faces Republicans skeptical of Afghanistan withdrawal. On The Wire: "Obama Will Face Two-Front War on Foreign Policy"
Ambinder: "On Election Night, What You Might Have Missed"
Huffington Post's Nick Wing reports that Rep. Michele Bachmann is planning on running for GOP Conference Chair, the fourth highest Republican leadership spot in the House. The conservative Minnesotan has built her profile this election season, backing Tea Party candidates and forming a House Tea Party Caucus. Her election to the post would signal that House Republicans have processed the power of the Tea Party movement and are incorporating it into their modus operandi. Bachmann would also add some much-needed diversity to House Republican leadership.
Alex Massie (@alexmassie) tweets: "Last 15 minutes of presser were Obama's best; first 15 his worst. Wrong way round! 'Shellacking' good, but not as good as 'we was humped'"
"Hello to All This" Sullivan, playing off the headline for his December 2007 Atlantic cover story: "The only hope I have is that Obama keeps pushing the pragmatic center forward, reveals the bluff behind the Tea Party's fake fiscal conservatism and somehow crafts a narrative to defeat this exhausted but potent meme."
Obama says he took a "shellacking" ... relationship with the American people "has gotten rockier and tougher"
Obama has gone anti-Washington, anti-White House during his tenure before. He told a crowd in the Midwest once that he doesn't like being in the White House, in the "bubble." We're getting more of that today, but phrased as a problem of perception, not of where Obama would personally rather be. "There is an inherent danger in being in the White House, in being in the bubble...it is hard not to seem removed..."
Alexis Madrigal has compiled a very cool slideshow of voting machines throughout the ages--or since 1890, at least, when the machine was ... a box. The box later evolved to a glass globe, a tabulating box, a curtained booth, a punch ballot, and now, potentially, a touchscreen voting machine. Click through here.
Obama "might serve Slurpees. They're delicious drinks." White House press corps inside joke. Rest of the nation doesn't get it. I sort of half-get it. I think. Ask @MarkKnoller
TNR's Jon Cohn muses on the degradation of the Democratic brand, quoting a Miami Herald dispatch on Rick Scott's narrow win in the Florida gubernatorial race: "I wouldn't have voted for him if I had another Republican to choose from,' said Frank Paruas, a 38-year-old Kendall Republican. 'I think Alex Sink isn't a bad person. But I just couldn't vote for anyone in the Democratic party right now.'"
