So far Obama's major nod to getting whooped last night is to speak slower and with a tinge of sorrow in his voice. Beyond that? Nope, not really.

Big Takeaway...Obama rejects notion that his policies were rejected by voters last night. Says his policies are not moving the nation backwards, rejects notion that was message of last night.

He's not going the Clinton way.

It would have been much shorter and much more honest if he just said what he really wants to say, "Let me be clear, I'm still awesome. If you aren't smart enough to get that, it's on you not me."

Quality M.K. Ham snark

Obama at 1:20: "Let's not relitigate the past." Obama at 1:24: "We already had a large deficit, which I inherited."

Running Updates:

10th question...do voters think you are out of touch and will you change your style. "Folks didn't have any questions about my leadership style when I was in Iowa for a year"...Running for office is NOT leadership.

Breaking...Obama seems to want you to know being President is hard.

Suffice it to say, Obama is not the warmest man in the world. Now he's throwing a pity party for himself.

9th question...Slurpie summit gets laugh. Will Obama offer 'reset' button to business community. Sure..I'll say nice things about business. Why not, he's spent two years killing them, doesn't hurt to say something nice about the dead.

He's just going on about how tough it was because of circumstances that he seemed tough on business. He really loves it. BS.

8th question...Slurpeee! Car in the ditch! You kind of got rejected on that, what's your thought? DADT repeal...kind of dead, right?

Obama says DADT repeal is right thing to do if done in orderly fashion. Avoids answer question. Says it might be addressed in Zombie Democrat session better than letting courts decide.

Doubles down on ditch metaphor.

7th question...Since Cap and Trade is dead, what about EPA regulations. Do you feel bad about cutting backroom deals to pass ObamaCare? he says process was mess and that's regrettable. Policy itself was worth it.

On EPA-We'll try legislation again. But EPA may have to act, too early to say how it will work out. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 08:58 AM | Comments (483)
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Looks like Michael Bennet (D) gets to keep his Senate seat. Damn it. He's leading by 15K votes with 88% of precincts in. So of the 3 toss-up races in Colorado, the Dems didn't lose a one.

Damn it.

Posted by: Geoff at 08:42 AM | Comments (143)
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This is something I never thought I'd type: the GOP now controls the Maine State House and the Blaine House.

The vote was close, though.

AUGUSTA, Maine — The Bangor Daily News is projecting that Republican Paul LePage will be the next governor of Maine, holding a 7,500 vote lead over independent candidate Eliot Cutler with just a few precincts yet to report in what turned out to be a nail-biting battle for the Blaine House.

Cutler called LePage to concede the race around 11 a.m. Wednesday, according to Cutler Campaign Manager Ted OÂ’Meara.

And abandon her they did. In this blue state, the Democrat was only able to earn 19% of the vote. And both Democrats won their Congressional campaigns, which shows just how schizophrenic Maine voters are.

Still, Maine's electoral map now looks like this: more...

Posted by: Slublog at 08:08 AM | Comments (122)
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In 2010, we couldn't grab the Senate in such hardcore Republican states like Connecticut, New York, California, and Washington; and we failed to beat an uber-popular Democratic governor in a state that has gone blue for the Senate since my grandfather was chasing tail as a 20 year old.
Certainly with such a teeeerrible performance of only grabbing seven over the course of the year, it isn't like 2012, you know, could be more...

Posted by: CAC at 07:20 AM | Comments (197)
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The historic GOP pickups in the House are getting the most attention (and rightfully so) but I wanted to say a few things about the Senate races.

Late last night Chuck Todd of NBC asked this on Twitter.

Was this election a referendum on Pelosi or Obama? if it was about Obama, wouldn't GOP be winning more SEN seats? Pelosi was issue in House

I'd argue the Senate results in total tell us nothing about Obama but if you look closer, they tell us a lot about his standing at the moment.

First, 2010 was always going to be tough for Republicans in the Senate. There were simply more Republican held seats to defend. It evened out a bit thanks to retirements, a death and Obama appointments but even then, they were in mostly safe Democratic seats.

Republicans didn't pick up as many seats as they would have liked and certainly didn't get the majority but look at some of the seats they did pick up...Indiana, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arkansas...those are swing states in presidential years. Illinois is a sold blue state but given that's Obama's old seat and that he campaigned for the Democrat, that's a pretty harsh rebuke to him. Only the North Dakota flip to Republicans was a solid red state in a presidential year coming home.

Also, look at the open seats that Republicans held on to....Florida, New Hampshire, Ohio and Missouri. Those are important states in presidential elections. At one point in the cycle Democrats had high hopes of winning some or even most of them. Team Obama can not feel good about seeing them go solidly to the Republicans.

The Democrats on the other hand spent the whole cycle playing defense on their own turf in places like California, Connecticut and West Virginia (though Obama will never win there). Washington is still to close to call.

The only swing type states they held on to were Nevada and now it seems Colorado.

For the Democrats to crow that they cruised in places like New York, Vermont and Delaware...well, so what? It's only news if they don't.

So yeah, where Democrats are easy winners all the time, every time, they won (except Illinois). Where both parties have to battle every cycle...the Republicans swept the table. That's the referendum on Obama and he lost.

UPDATE [geoff]: Bennet (D) is up by 7500 over Buck (R) in the CO Senate race with almost 90% of precincts reporting.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:55 AM | Comments (104)
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PLEASE NOTE! This post isn't by Ace. He's far too drunk / hungover / trying to un-stick his pudding-covered bag from his thighs to be bothered with posting this early.

I know this cuts against the grain of the crowd here at Ace's, which is why I shied away from discussions & posting this election. It would have amounted to little more than a distraction.

The efforts made by Ace & the readers here were extraordinary & commendable, and everyone should be ecstatic with the results.

We took the House going away, tossing out everything from first-term blue-dogs to creaky Committee leaders who had suckled the Capitol teat for decades.

And we closed the gap in the Senate, leaving use poised beautifully for more pick-ups in '12.

more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:47 AM | Comments (121)
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That sound you just heard was the State of California irretrievably flushing itself down the toilet.

This is financial news for several reasons, and it's really the only financial story that matters today.

California's most dire problems right now are related to public-employee obligations (pensions and healthcare). The power of public-employee unions in California have held the State and local governments in thrall for years, and with the election of Jerry Brown as Governor, the people of California have opted to spray kerosene on a blaze that was already threatening to overwhelm them.

Consider stories like this or this -- they are emblematic of a state where the people are no longer masters of their government.

Well, the die has been cast, California. You have placed your fate into the hands of a political party and a governmental machine that cares for nothing except what it can squeeze out of you to keep the party-train rolling. There will come a time in the not-too-distant future when you will have cause to bitterly regret what happened last night, and to wonder when the disaster truly became unavoidable. Well, now you know: it happened last night when you elected Jerry Brown as your governor. You chose to kowtow to the labor unions; you chose to believe comforting lies rather than the horrible truth.

You will reap the whirlwind.

[UPDATE] Don't take this as a gloom-n-doom post, Morons. I'm quite happy with how last night turned out. We lost a few tough races we probably should have won, but California's fate was written in the starlight and every line on your palm. At least this way the Democrats get to own the mess they made in the first place. Wisconsin looked on that far shore and turned away -- let's be glad of that.

Posted by: Monty at 05:27 AM | Comments (307)
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And somebody turn the sun down.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:45 AM | Comments (416)
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It's not declared yet, but 88% are in, and Murky leads by 10,000.

The only hope seems to be that there are 20,000 absentees, which I suppose could break hard for Miller. Perhaps... I don't know, maybe some people voted before it became widely appreciated that Murky was a bona fide threat.

Posted by: Ace at 01:06 AM | Comments (140)
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I don't think there'll be too many new victors announced tonight. But in case they are...

Posted by: Ace at 11:07 PM | Comments (296)
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