With Ranked-choice voting, Oakland voters are facing the question whether they legitimately elected an incompetent, or if they were denied the opportunity to vote for their preferred candidate for mayor.

The motives of the coward who shot a bunch of people (including Dem Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords) down in Arizona earlier today are not known, but I think we can all agree that campaign literature like this certainly doesn’t help… Yes, I’m talking about Sarah Palin. This was the tweet announcing the ridiculous image above… This [...]

After the self-described “shellacking” Obama and the Dems got in November, the turnaround in this lame duck session has been nothing short of extraordinary. 5 major pieces of legislation were passed during a time when nothing usually gets done. And all of it was bipartisan in one form or another. Let’s run down what they [...]

President Obama and his political brain trust were diligently taking notes while getting schooled in the midterms. On Monday President Obama announced a federal employee pay freeze for non-military employees. On Tuesday he met with congressional leadership and assured the American people that he heard the voice of the voters.

As we somberly walk with the funeral procession following the midterm election, the air is filled with cries, lamentations, rending of garments, and portents of doom from Democrats and liberals, much as we heard from Republicans and conservatives after the Republican Party was buried following the 2008 results.

Under the mountain of navel gazing, finger-pointing, self-serving spin, and bitter invective found in the left-o-sphere, we can still find a few gems of sparkling analysis, insight and useful advice. For your consideration – two examples of Progressive postmortems that caught my attention. But to mine a rich vein of solid gold analysis, we must first separate and dispose of the slag. There are two very different Progressive perspectives of the election, electorate, and, most importantly, the way forward. Consider which of the two is informed by common sense, logic and data and which is informed by rhetoric, sophistry and rage. I submit they are representative of two significant and incompatible constituencies within the Democratic Party. The schism has been there all along, but was papered over in 2006 and 2008 by the unifying principle of Bush Hate. Regardless of how skilled Axelrod, Gibbs, and Plouffe may be skilled at “triangulation”, the Obama administration cannot simultaneously turn left and turn toward the center. I hope Democrats choose wisely, as I really don’t want to see us return to one party Republican rule in 2013. they shouldn’t rely on Palin and Tea Party to hand the 2012 election to the Democrats. They just may disappoint them. Again.

The single most dramatic change in the complexion of our government emerging from the midterm election is the impending leadership change in the House of Representatives. Republican John Boehner will be replacing Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. He will be seated next to Joe Biden behind President Obama for the State of the Union Address in early 2011. You may want to take some time now to adjust the tint and color intensity on your hi-def flat screen.

Nate Silver reveals the ugly truth: The 105 polls released in Senate and gubernatorial races by Rasmussen Reports and its subsidiary, Pulse Opinion Research, missed the final margin between the candidates by 5.8 points, a considerably higher figure than that achieved by most other pollsters. Some 13 of its polls missed by 10 or more [...]

Dino Rossi conceded about an hour ago and gave Patty Murray her 4th term in the Senate. From The Seattle Times comes the reality: As of Thursday evening, Murray was leading Rossi by more than 45,000 votes, taking 51 percent to Rossi’s 49 percent. That’s up from a 14,000-vote lead on Election Day. According to [...]

The race is now divided by 2% or 27,000 votes. That doesn’t seem like much, but Murray’s lead was just 14,000, so that’s a big jump when you consider how much ground her challenger, Dino Rossi, would have to make up. In fact, The Seattle Times thinks it’s a done deal: Rossi’s vote percentage slipped [...]

He wasn’t supposed to win a month ago, but he pulled into the lead late and was able to hold. From Denver Post: Appointed U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet will be elected to the U.S. Senate after pulling ahead of challenger Ken Buck this morning. Long after most Coloradans — including the candidates and their supporters [...]

She’s leading 41% to 34% right now with 76% reporting. Not an insurmountable lead, but things would really have to start going Joe Miller’s way in order for him to overtake the incumbent. From NY Times: The Murkowski campaign had used unconventional means to wage her unconventional campaign — from wristbands to homespun jingles and [...]

It wasn’t the squeaker that was once reported. Looks like he’ll win by 5%, which is a pretty big swing from what the polls were projecting. But we all know it wasn’t a matter of Reid being good. Angle was just that bad. From the LA Times: Reporting from Las Vegas — Democratic Sen. Harry [...]

It doesn’t look like it’ll even be close. From TPM: As the Republican wave spreads across the country, it’s time to say goodbye to one of the big-name progressive champions of the past 18 years: Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), champion of campaign finance reform and longtime opponent of the Patriot Act, has gone down in [...]

This is one seat that the Dems probably won’t get back any time soon. From LA Times: Lincoln, who reluctantly voted for Obama’s healthcare insurance overhaul, carried the flag for Democrats but often disagreed with her more liberal colleagues. For example, she was one of the few Democrats to vote for the Bush administration tax [...]

One! Two! Three! With less than 1% or precincts reporting, Blumenthal leads by 62%-36%, and has been projected as the winner by Fox News and NBC News. (Keep in mind that with so few precincts in, the margin is likely to fluctuate considerably throughout the night — the current numbers are not final.) McMahon apparently [...]

This one was close for a while, but Manchin started to pull away after he made some ads that targeted Obama and his health care bill. That apparently helped him with independents and moderate Dems. Here’s more from TPM: We now have a result in a key red state — where Democrats have been saved [...]

Kit Bond’s old seat stays with the Republicans. Robin Carnahan ran a very anemic campaign and she never really felt like a leader. This is no surprise, but at one point some thought this could be a pick up. Done and done.

So far the Tea Party candidates are 2 for 3 when it comes to the Senate. To me, Rubio’s win is much more important to the Tea Party than Paul’s. Especially since Rubio is so young, from a very populous state and is much smarter than Paul. Keep your eye on him. Christine O’Donnell, yeah, [...]

Well, of course the answer is no and Nate Silver offers five reasons why. I’ll summarize here, but you should really check out this blog post. It’s pretty long, but a great read. Of course it will all be null and void in about four hours. Reason #1 – The Cell Phone Effect: This one [...]

If the GOP picks up 8 seats to leave the Senate with a 51-49 Democratic majority, the game will be afoot. With four Democratic Senators in play, and only two needed to flip the majority, these Senators will be wrestling with classic Prisoner’s Dilemma.