Election shows mandate for moderation

Nancy Kruh

Opinion is split on whether the results of Tuesday's off-year election are a harbinger of better days ahead for Republicans, but no one is finding much good news for Democrats.

Fred Barnes celebrates for Republicans after GOP standard-bearers won gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey.

"Republicans have demonstrated that two trends suggested in recent opinion polls are for real," the Weekly Standard columnist writes. "The first is that Republicans have pulled off a remarkable comeback after disastrous election defeats in 2006 and 2008. The second is that they now have a realistic shot at capturing the House and gaining Senate seats in the 2010 midterm election."

E.J. Dionne considers the voting outcomes "a rebuke to the right wing and a warning to Democrats."

The Washington Post columnist finds significance in a New York special election for a U.S. House seat, where a Democrat bested a third-party conservative candidate in a predominantly Republican district.

That outcome "puts the victories of Republicans Chris Christie in New Jersey and Bob McDonnell in Virginia in a different light," Dionne writes. "Both won governorships by focusing on the need to win voters smack in the middle of the electorate: moderates, independents and suburbanites."

John Dickerson isn't buying the idea that the elections were "a referendum on (Barack) Obama ."

"Each race had local issues -- taxes in New Jersey and transportation in Virginia -- and flawed candidates," the Slate columnist writes. "By clear majorities, voters in New Jersey and Virginia said they weren't basing their decisions on the president."

Still, Dickerson adds, "that's not to say it was a good night for Obama. Voters are very jittery about the economy. In both New Jersey and Virginia, voters listed it as their top priority. Those voters overwhelmingly voted for Republicans."

Looking at a swing among independent voters toward Republicans, Daniel Henninger sees trouble all around.

"These voters are spooked and on the run, a political stampede that veered left in November 2008 and now right a mere year later," the Wall Street Journal columnist writes. "They will keep running -- crushing incumbents, candidates and political models of the left and right -- through November 2010 and onto 2012 until they find a person or party capable of leadership appropriate to our unsettled times."

Nancy Kruh writes a weekly roundup of opinion.