In the end, the 2010 midterms came down to a very simple truth: if unemployment were near double digits come November, Democrats would take a beating. It is, and they have. Exit polls found that nearly nine in ten voters believe the economy is in bad shape. The same percentage said they feel pessimistic about America’s economic future. That’s practically everyone! And while a large majority of voters still believe that George Bush is to blame for getting us into this mess, they are clearly holding Obama accountable for not fixing it. The Pottery Barn rule – "you break it, you own it" – was given a twist tonight. Turns out, sometimes even if you weren’t the one who broke it, you own it. So it is with our broken economy. Bush broke it, but Obama, underestimating just how broken it is, owns it…
After midterm wins, GOP vows to block Obama’s agenda
Washington Post
By Dan Balz and William Branigin
November 3, 2010
Republican leaders, buoyed by recapturing the House and gaining seats in the Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections, vowed Wednesday to pursue their plans to downsize the federal government and said voters had vindicated their efforts to block President Obama’s agenda. "We’re determined to stop the agenda Americans have rejected and to turn the ship around," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell [R-KY] told a news conference with the new presumptive House speaker, Rep. John A. Boehner [R-OH], and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. "We’ll work with the administration when they agree with the people and confront them when they don’t." He said the elections showed that voters "appreciated us saying no to the things that the American people indicated they were not in favor of."
Boehner said he saw no problem for Republicans in "incorporating members of the tea party with our party in the quest that’s really the same" following the midterms, which amounted to a major rebuff of Obama and the Democrats by an electorate worried about the economy and the size of government. "It’s pretty clear that the American people want a smaller, less costly and more accountable government here in Washington, D.C.," Boehner said.
Barbour, representing an enlarged group of Republican governors across the country, said: "The voters yesterday voted against excessive spending, piling up deficits, trillions of dollars in new debt being loaded on our children and grandchildren, a huge tax increase right around the corner in January, and a government-run health care system." Speaking just four years after their party surrendered power in Congress, the Republican leaders urged Democrats to heed what they said was the message of midterm voters and move toward the GOP’s positions. "We hope that they will pivot in a different direction," McConnell said…
So what are we to believe? That the 2010 Midterms represent a plea to Obama or a rejection of Obama? Both interpretations are self-serving from their respective sides of the fence.
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