Intelligent US Politics American Politics. No Liberal Spin. Today, voters in two key gubernatorial election races sent a message to the Obama Administration and Democratic Congressmen and Senators throughout the land. The message, when you boil it down, is the Yes We Can and Hope You Can Believe In election result of 2008 was a fluke, not a mandate. The voters in New Jersey and Virginia said they don’t trust Obama or the rest of the Politburo; they want less government, less spending and less socialism. And the don’t want nationalized health care either.
Conservative Republican Bob McDonnell won the Virginia governor’s race by a wide margin Tuesday, heading up a successful GOP ticket in the swing state which handed Obama a six percent victory just one year ago. Today, in a complete reversal, Virginia voters spanked Obama with a twenty point landslide. If you’re counting, that’s a 26 percent turnaround in just one year.
McDonnell’s victory over Democrat Creigh Deeds, who conceded before a somber crowd, ends eight years of Democratic control of the governorship.
In New Jersey, the gubernatorial race between incumbent Jon Corzine and Republican challenger Chris Christie was far less predictable. In the end, Christie overcame conventional wisdom, smear campaigning and an electorate where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 3 million voters in beating Corzine. Christie’s platform was one of limited government, less spending and lower taxes.
Today, the Tea Party had a much better day than the Democratic Party
In Virginia, the Republican had been favored to win the race after leading by double digits in almost every pre-election poll. The race hinged in large part on economic concerns — McDonnell pitched himself to voters as the “jobs governor.”
In his victory speech from Richmond, McDonnell pledged “actions and results” over the next four years, promising to pursue job creation while keeping taxing, spending and regulation to a minimum. “We will leave Virginia better than we found it,” he said.
Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling also won a second term Tuesday, defeating Democrat Jody Wagner. And Republican state Senator Ken Cuccinelli was the winner of the race for state attorney general, beating Democratic state Del. Steve Shannon.
Republican Party leaders were quick to claim the victories as a sign that Americans are rebelling against Democratic policies in Washington. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said the victories marked a “clear rejection” of “tax and spend policies” in Washington.
“The Republican Party’s overwhelming victory in Virginia is a blow to President Obama and the Democrats. It sends a clear signal that voters have had enough of the president’s liberal agenda,” he said in a statement.
The White House on Tuesday afternoon dismissed such speculation as “navel gazing,” with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs saying the elections mean very little for the president’s agenda or for the midterm elections. But the administration nevertheless intervened in both of the closely watched gubernatorial elections which were held Tuesday.
President Obama, who was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Virginia in decades last year, campaigned for Deeds in Norfolk last week. But with Deeds continuing to trail, Obama shifted his attention to the New Jersey governor’s race in the run-up to Election Day.
Apparently, Yes We Can wasn’t enough, where today the voters of Virginia and New Jersey dispelled the notion of an Obama mandate.
