NY Times:
A costly and polarizing Congressional campaign heads into its closing week with Republicans in a strong position to win the House but with Democrats maintaining a narrow edge in the battle for the Senate, according to a race-by-race review and lawmakers and strategists on both sides.
Frank Rich:
The reasons for his failure to reap credit for any economic accomplishments are a catechism by now: the dark cloud cast by undiminished unemployment, the relentless disinformation campaign of his political opponents, and the White House’s surprising ineptitude at selling its own achievements. But the most relentless drag on a chief executive who promised change we can believe in is even more ominous. It’s the country’s fatalistic sense that the stacked economic order that gave us the Great Recession remains not just in place but more entrenched and powerful than ever.
So you averted Armageddon. And what have you done for me lately, anyway?
Gail Collins:
But about Russ Feingold. He is running for a fourth term, in a very tough race against Ron Johnson, a plastics manufacturer and one of those rich political virgins who have been popping up in races across the country, waving a checkbook and a copy of "Atlas Shrugged."
Tony Jackson (Hendersonville, TN):
Most politicians arouse my skepticism. Not to mention what we are subjected to on a daily basis that masquerades as news.
My point is, the seemingly ever-growing masses of "sheeple" don’t seem to have a fully developed or functioning B.S. meter. If they did, they wouldn’t be so easily led to believe the half-truths and outright lies being spread by talking heads and politicians with hidden agendas. One thing is certain, fear is a powerful tool being wielded every day by those who strive to divide and turn us Americans against each other. Yes, I said Americans, not Caucasian Americans or African Americans.
Be skeptical, when you hear our duly elected president referred to as a half-Kenyan Muslim, the meter in your head should tell you that whomever is doing the talking is skirting around and talking about race. When that red-faced, screaming Tea Party candidate says "we’re gonna take back our country" the translation is, "take back the country from those who don’t look like us."
Ian Reifowitz:
Characterizing some of us as "real" or "everyday Americans" means that others are somehow "not real" Americans. Palin says "real" Americans live in small towns, a stand-in for culture, values, and more ominously if indirectly, religion and ethnicity. Her language evokes the Klan's Anglo-Protestant definition of Americanness, another ideology that draws on traditional small-town antagonism toward the city, toward cultural change, and toward those defined as different. Palin's America hearkens back to a simpler, mythic time when Americans were-or at least seemed-more like one another, and when those who were different knew their place. She suggests that her political opponents reject everything good and right about that mythic America.
Political scientists analyze Connecticut:
Connecticut's voters, like those in much of the nation, are frustrated. Many want better policy outcomes, particularly, in terms of jobs. Perhaps different from some parts of the nation, though, a majority in Connecticut still supports (President Barack) Obama -- essentially believing that federal government has not done enough, not too much.
In addition, the gender gap -- with women overwhelmingly supporting the Democratic candidates -- continues to exist in Connecticut, even though it thought to be shrinking in other parts of the nation.
Hmm... CT seems to have avoided the excess of the above. Other parts of the country will, too.
[Added]: Nate Silver:
Certainly, Mr. Sestak could win his race in Pennsylvania. But if he does, that might suggest that the enthusiasm gap isn’t quite as large as some pollsters were expecting, or that there were other problems with the polls that had implications in a number of races around the country. In that universe, the Democrats would probably be favored to win at least one or two of the races in the group including Nevada, Colorado, Illinois, and West Virginia — all of which appear slightly closer to us than Pennsylvania — and Republicans would be long shots to win in California or Washington, where Democrats already have an edge.