[Vicomte13]

The REAL lesson of tonight is that it was a good night for Independents.

Republicans do not win elections.
Neither do Democrats.
Neither are a majority, anywhere.
Both are minorities.
It's the Independents who choose one side over the other in any particular election.
Tonight, where there was a clear Independent choice: economically liberal, militarily conservative, he won.
Big.
There's a lesson there.

Neither party, of course, wants to learn it.

Republicans are not losing seats tonight because REPUBLICANS turned on their own. They are losing because INDEPENDENTS are sick of the party.

[mewzilla]

What was turnout like? If turnout wasn't high, I don't know how much anyone can extrapolate from any of these results.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Tonight, where there was a clear Independent choice: economically liberal, militarily conservative, he won.
Big.
There's a lesson there.

Neither party, of course, wants to learn it.

True, but another lesson is that the Democrats are better at paying lip service to military conservative voters than the Republicans are at paying lip service to economic liberals. Exceptions, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, are probably the future of American politics - as distasteful as that may sound to some here. The era of the Santorums and Brownbacks is coming to an end.

[Hattie]

Republicans are not losing seats tonight because REPUBLICANS turned on their own. They are losing because INDEPENDENTS are sick of the party.

So how does that jive with the need for us to be more conservative? Most of the Indes I know are really pretty liberal. Actually lean Dem most of the time.