The Bright Side

It's the morning after, here are my thoughts for some 'depressed' Republicans...

1. McCain would not have been a good president, had he won, it would certainly have led to a defeat in four years and then, shudder, we could have heard this phrase, "President Hillary Clinton".

2. Remember 1994...This win puts ALL the pressure on the Democrats, who now have the house and senate as well. If Obama tries to get too radical the public will backlash, just as it did with Hillary's health care takeover attempt, and Republicans will win back congress.

3. This was NOT a change in how America feels about itself politically. Some are going to try to claim that this has become a more liberal country, etc. I completely disagree. We had possibly the most unpopular president of modern times in office, we are in two wars, one which most people don't agree with (note, I'm not taking sides on that issue here merely pointing out that fact) and a few Republicans disgraced the party while in office with stupid scandals. This was more just people wanting to go a different way for a while. I'm not panicking and assuming this means death to the idea of Republicans ever having power again. It just means we have to stop nominating old war heroes (see Bob Dole 1996) for president and start nominating people that are in touch with the current times and will appeal to people who want to see the government move in a different direction. Frankly, we had a LOUSY group of people running for president this year and there really was no great choice who could have overcome all this background stuff.

4. Finally, it appears the Democrats will NOT get 60 senate seats, which means Obama HAS to govern more from the center. If he tries to push some over-the-top legislation through congress it will be filibustered.

Anyway, no reason for despair, you can't expect your party to win every election, that's not realistic, and our country will be just fine.