This morning’s New York Times sort of painted yesterday’s election results as repudiations of the Obama Administration. Without a doubt, many people—especially conservatives—are extremely unhappy with the direction of the country. But a repudiation? I’m not so sure.
The biggest victory was probably New Jersey, where the incumbent governor, John Corzine, lost to a Republican upstart named Christopher Christie. I’m a Democrat, but—just being 100-percent honest—I probably would have voted for Christie, too. Hell, there comes a time when party loyalty means little; when you have to look at an elected official and say, “This guy has has his chance, and he’s not very good.” That’s Corzine, an ultra-wealthy former businessman who has made a ton of economic promises—few of them actually kept. Christie’s a former prosecutor, but his greatest strength, in this case, seemed to be that he was not John Corzine. He made remarkably few promises … offered very few ideas … slung around the ol’ “change” line that’s been used 100,000 times before. But, again, Corzine was awful.
To me, the biggest election result came in one of the smallest rings—New York’s 23rd Congressional District. This is an ultra-conservative area way up in the boonies, where Republicans win and win and win. This year, however, national arch-conservatives refused to support the Republican candidate, a moderate named Dede Scozzafava who supported gay rights and some of Obama’s financial policies. Hence, after heavyweights like Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh endorsed Doug Hoffman (an arch conservative who doesn’t believe in man’s influence on global warming), The Scozz dropped out and endorsed the Democrat, Bill Owens.
To many, this was the measuring stick of national politics. Were Hoffman (pictured above) to win, Rush and Palin are vindicated. Were Owens to win, the Republicans made a huge mistake, pushing aside moderates in the name of extremism.
Owens won.
Praise Jesus.
