Money Wins
"Big win for conservative money" reports Politico: "Conservatives tweaked their playbook to spend bigger and earlier to crush tea party insurgents and define Democratic candidates. And Republicans won most of the Senate races in which they prosecuted that plan – including Iowa, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia ... Conservative outside groups — including establishment mainstays like Karl Rove’s Crossroads outfits and the Chamber of Commerce, as well as tea party outfits like the Senate Conservatives Fund and FreedomWorks – combined to spend $62 million in primary and run-off elections in 2014 ... The Chamber spent $70 million in the midterms, including at least $11 million in GOP primaries..."
"The Barack Obama coalition stayed home" notes Bloomberg: "The demographic mix of young, minority and women voters that twice helped elect Obama to the White House [fell off] from the level of support the president enjoyed just two years ago ... Even when compared to the last midterm election in 2010, the American electorate Tuesday was older..."
But four red states vote to increase the minimum wage: "The passage of minimum wage ballot initiatives in three red-leaning states — Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota — and an expected victory in Alaska provided some rare good news to Democrats in desperate need of some. But as a wedge issue, the minimum wage proved a disappointment. The minimum increases won’t improve prospects that Congress will pass President Barack Obama’s proposed federal increase to $10.10, up from the current $7.25."
What Will Republicans Do?
Republicans still face internal civil war, Norm Ornstein tells Salon: "...the story here is a Republican Party still facing almost an existential battle between ... an establishment and more pragmatic wing that believes that if you want to compete for the White House, you’ve got to show a positive agenda and show that you can govern, do some things that work with Obama; and a more radical wing that is reflected by what Ted Cruz said to the Washington Post just a couple of days ago, that now’s the time to flex our right-wing muscles."
GOP still wants to go after Obamacare, notes TNR's Jonathan Cohn: "Several of the ideas have potential to attract some Democratic votes, perhaps enough to clear the filibuster and end up on the president's desk. But most of the ideas under discussion would also have negative side effects, like raising the deficit or blatantly helping well-connected lobbying groups. That would give the White House a legitimate reason to veto the measures."
What Should Democrats Do?
Obama "won’t pivot to the right" reports Politico: "Obama will strike a tone of compromise and accountability during his public remarks Wednesday ... 'very willing' to start cutting deals, a senior administration official said, possibly on trade, corporate taxes and patent reform ... At the same time, Obama won’t back down from using his administrative powers, including plans to issue an executive order on immigration that could be the most aggressive unilateral action of his presidency ... 'You can’t lose your base,”'a second senior administration official said. 'There are policy things we are going to have to support where the base isn’t there. But you’ve got to keep your eye on your base.'"
Obama should "double down" argues The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel: "[Obama should] immediately try to change the subject, in a big way ... undertaking a quick series of high-profile executive actions on issues that the Republican House has not acted upon, and will never pass ... Start with serious immigration reform ... Cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline ... Meet with China and India on climate issues, before the next round of global climate meetings. Set aside big chunks of public land and ocean ... issue a Good Jobs Executive Order that would reward companies that pay their workers a living wage [and] allow them a voice at the workplace..."
Democrats need a "new agenda," says American Prospect's Harold Meyerson: "A defeat of this magnitude suggests that the Democrats are in the same fix as most of the center-left parties of Europe—parties that purport to be the economic advocates of the middle and working classes, but preside over abysmal economies with no clear sense of how to make them better ... How do they deliver for an embattled middle class in a globalized, de-unionized, far-from-full-employment economy, where workers have lost the power they once wielded to ensure a more equitable distribution of income and wealth? What Democrat, besides Elizabeth Warren, campaigned this year to diminish the sway of the banks?"
