Well I think we can call tonight a crushing defeat for the Democrats. But now, come January, what are the Republicans going to do? How nice are they going to play with the barely Democratic Senate? How will they play with the President? Also, how will both the Senate and the President play with the Republicans? The next two years will be interesting to watch since it can have major political ramifications in 2012.
Here's my take on the situation.
It isn't just the bad economy that swept the republicans back into controlling the House... It goes much deeper than that.
Obama and the democrats passed 2 of the largest, and arguably most expensive pieces of legislation is American history... The nearly trillion dollar stimulus package and the Obamacare legislation. Not only were both of those bills opposed by the majority of the American people, but both were opposed nearly unanimously by republicans. Then add in the fact that both bills ended up not being what they were advertised to be by Obama and the democrats, and what you have is a lot of very pissed off people.
Obama and the democrats passing that stimulus package, and then putting universal health care at the top of their agenda next, was directly responsible for the creation of the Tea Party movement. What made it grow to the point that democrats lost control of the congress, was when they ignored the American people and passed that damned health care bill anyway. That was the last straw.
This election makes it very clear what the American people want and don't want. What they want is a different and hopefully more effective legislative agenda, that focuses on the economy and fiscal responsibility before anything else. What they don't want is a highly partisan government that ignores the will of the people in order to pursue their own personal, political agendas. They've had quite enough of that the last 2 years.
It's obvious that the American people didn't elect republicans into office and vote democrats out, because they expected republicans to go along with Obama and the democrats progressive agenda. What the American people want, is for the republicans to set the legislative agenda, putting a priority on the economy and less government spending. If the Obama and the democrats are smart, they will play ball with the republicans. If they don't, and decide they are now going to be the "party of no", they could end up dead in the water in 2012. When the republicans were the party of "no", they were saying no on behalf of the majority of the American people. If the democrats say no, they better make damned sure it represents the people rather than their political agenda, or it's bye bye white house, and bye bye senate after the next election.