The Washington Post has a decent recap of yesterday’s elections. One important takeaway: the coalition that Obama built in 2008 is now mostly eroded. Whether it will stay that way is another question.
Equally important, though, is that Obama now owns the economic mess. He can no longer blame Dubya and get away with it.
Another major shift came on the economy. Polls have shown through much of the year that Americans blame former president George W. Bush more than Obama for the recession. But if the economic collapse was a powerful force working for Obama and the Democrats last year, it clearly helped Republicans on Tuesday.
Just over half the electorate in both states said they were very worried about the economy, according to the exit polls, percentages almost identical to a year ago. But last year Obama carried those voters by 59 to 40 percent in Virginia and by 61 to 38 percent in New Jersey. On Tuesday, McDonnell won three in four of those voters, while Christie won about three in five.
