Thoughts on the Eve of the Mid-term Elections of 2010

We hear this every time there is a vote: "This is a historical election"; "This is perhaps the most important election of our lifetime"; "The political landscape is being forever transformed...."

Blah blah blah.

So what is really changing? What is supposed to be changing? What will change?

The predictions are that the Republicans will regain a majority in the House while Democrats will retain a slim majority in the Senate. Big deal.

First of all, this is less significant a result than one might have expected. Just about every mid-term election following the election of a new president 2 years prior results in a decisive victory for the opposing party. Picking up a few seats in both Chambers of Congress is exactly what anyone with a sense of history could have told you 2 years ago would happen, yet the media tries to treat it like a bombshell revelation.

Secondly, the fact that the country is in a recession (as we knew it would be 2 years ago since such a sever recession was bound to drag on, although this one could have been far worse) you would expect the reigning party to suffer a resounding defeat at the polls.

As it is, many states seem ready to go blue in races where you might have expected Democrats to be crushed. This of course is due to the fringe movement of Tea Parties getting the jump on ousting otherwise respectable Republican candidates whom one would have thought would walk away with the contest. I mean if Sharon Angle wasn't the Republican front runner in Nevada, Harry Reid would have a fork in him already.

The most interesting race in my opinion seems to be that in Alaska. Linda Murkowski, the write-in candidate who "should have been" the Republican candidate for the Senate, seems to have a slight margin over both the Democrat in the race and the Republican Joe Miller (a whack-a-do) who has garnered controversial publicity for allowing his goons to physically harass a reporter.

I think that all this hoopla about the Tea Party is interesting, but I think it boils (no pun intended) down to the fact that when the Tea Party was building up steam (no pun intended) the majority of Republican primary voters were sort of taking a blase attitude towards voting. They put it on the back burner (ok that time - pun intended).

I mean lets face it, how many people really bother to vote in the primaries? I never have. I'm not proud of that fact but there it is. The Tea Party, meanwhile, took advantage of this general disinterest in primary elections to motivate their base and take the flat-footed Republican electorate unawares. You can't convince me that the majority of Republicans in Maryland are happy about Christine O'Donnell, as cute and cuddly as she is!

Anyhow, I think I started this post as an effort to say that the Democrats shouldn't feel all defeatist and glum about their prospects in this election, seeing as under the circumstances they will come out of this slightly less powerful than otherwise. The Republicans over the next two years will almost certainly over-reach, and even if they nominate someone as sensible seeming as Mitt Romney to be their presidential forerunner he will be rendered ridiculous somehow, by either being forced to sound "Tea-Partyish" and/or by having to make someone like Sarah Palin his running mate.

OK, looking too far into the future, I know. Look the troops are coming out of Iraq, the economy is slowing limping towards recovery... things will improve over the long term. I think Americans, despite the ranting and raving, are sheepishly admitting to themselves that Obama - although he hasn't walked on water - has made some strides in the right direction, and as much as it seems they have forgotten the legacy of Bush-like policies.... and call me naive... most Americans must be loathe to put the brakes on running away from the era of unaccountability.

The "Party of No" has been able to slow things down but not totally stop every initiative. Yes, a majority in the House will curb the President's ambitions to a degree, but if he is skillful as a politician he may be able yet to wring some meaningful legislation out of a divided Congress.

I'm not all that concerned. Concerned, yes, panicked... nah!