WSJ on the still undecided CT Gov race:
In an election that included ballot shortages, changing tallies and an all-night hand-recount, Mr. Malloy beat Republican Tom Foley by more than 5,600 votes, the website shows. Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz hadn't certified the results as of Friday afternoon.
Connecticut voters cast 566,498 votes for Mr. Malloy and 560,861 for Tom Foley, according to returns posted Friday on the state website. The 5,637-vote margin exceeds the 2,000 votes needed to avoid a recount.
If the results are certified by Ms. Bysiewicz, Mr. Malloy would be the state's first Democratic governor in 20 years, since William O'Neill served. He would replace Gov. Jodi Rell.
Malloy's not Governor yet, but he will be. Some of the networks are making that call.
Gail Collins:
Many women are horrified by people like Bachmann because they fear that when the rest of the country watches her bizarre performances, they see not just an addled person from Minnesota, but a woman in politics. We have to get past that. Men don’t cringe on behalf of their sex when Newt Gingrich goes Islamophobic, or Carl Paladino threatens to take out a reporter. There are many battles yet to be fought, but I think women have achieved enough success in this country to stop feeling as if Bachmann reflects on anyone but her party and herself.
Palin, meanwhile, was engrossed in her own postelection minicrisis when she "favorited" an Ann Coulter Twitter message praising a church sign that referred to President Obama as a "Taliban Muslim." Coulter would be another one of the women we are not taking responsibility for.
Many men are horrified as well. Why did otherwise sensible Minnesotans elect a clown?
EJ Dionne on Nancy Pelosi:
"One of the members called me and said, 'I'm in a tough race. It's even. I don't know how it's going to turn out,' " she recalls. " 'But I know one thing: that I wouldn't do anything differently. I wouldn't change my vote on health-care reform no matter how they tried to describe it. It was important for me to vote to give the opportunity that that bill provides.' "
"These members know what they believe in," she notes, channeling her own feelings through those of her colleagues. "They will have plenty of options in life. I hope one of them is to consider coming back to Congress."
Eugene Robinson on the truly historical effectiveness of Pelosi:
President Obama still has the ability to set the nation's agenda -- and also the power of the veto, in case of emergency. Harry Reid is still Senate majority leader -- and after the way he punched and scrapped his way to victory, who wants to mess with him? As for John Boehner, he'll soon learn that his new job requires a more extensive vocabulary than "no."
But amid the wreckage of Tuesday's GOP rampage, there's one person for whom I feel awful: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She's losing her job not because she does it poorly but because she does it so well.
Reid Wilson:
The freshman class that will make up the 112th Congress, too, could give Boehner headaches. It is unusually large, and unusually comprised of members who are committed to changing the fundamental underpinnings of Washington. They are unlikely to go along with the established order of things, even though Boehner appears more like the stereotypical Washington insider than tea party members would like.
Boehner's balancing act is delicate. He must appease the base while appeasing the middle, compromise where he can while standing against a president his party loathes. But for Obama and the Democrats, the stakes are higher, and compromise seems inevitable.
What is far from certain is that the economy will actually turn around in time for the 2012 election. New policies, or just an inevitable market-driven recovery, may begin creating jobs and restoring hope, but it's unlikely things will be back to pre-recession levels.
If voters are still angry and still believe Congress or the White House has steered them wrong, Washington should strap in. It promises to be another bumpy ride.
Steven Stark:
Now that the midterm wipeout has concluded, analysts are already sizing up the GOP challengers to a weakened Barack Obama. Not only that: some Democratic party elders are considering the once-unthinkable scenario of a debilitating challenge to Barack Obama from inside his party — most likely from a disgruntled critic on the left. But in truth, Obama has little to fear there. It's an urban myth that any inter-party challenge to a president weakens him. George Wallace challenged Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and Pete McCloskey ran against Richard Nixon in 1972 — both to little effect. Even Pat Buchanan's insurgency against George Bush in 1992 was far more symptom than cause of the incumbent's loss in November.
Remind the ambitious Heath Schuler before he runs for President.
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