Time for President Obama to move the smiley face upside down after the only two governorships up for grabs yesterday – both currently held by Democrats – went over to the dark side.
Chris Christie, proving that only Republicans named Christie can win in New Jersey, knocked off both incumbent governor Jon Corzine and an independent challenger. He still managed 49% of the vote.
Bob McDonnell, who once used the word “fornicators” unironically and academically, beat the rather dull Creigh Deeds in a Virginia race that even the White House grew bored with over the last few weeks.
The Administration today put its best spin on things, as the AP reports:
The White House says that Republican wins in two governors’ races were not referendums on the president. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Wednesday that voters went to the polls in Virginia and New Jersey to work through “very local issues that didn’t involve the president.” The presidential spokesman said voters were concerned about the economy.
I’m not sure if that’s just sloppy editing by the AP, or if Robert Gibbs really doesn’t see the economy as a presidential-level issue. I will unfairly assume the latter because it’s more fun. But even if we give Gibbs the benefit of the doubt, why would President Obama campaign for Deeds and Corzine if the voters were simply working through issues “that didn’t involve the president”?
He knows, as does everyone else, that the Republican victories were most certainly a reflection of voters’ attitudes toward the president and the Democratic trifecta in Washington.
If you are frustrated with leadership in Washington and cannot vote directly for the president, you are likely to vote against people associated with the president and for people who are not associated with the president. This is why the unfortunate Democrat running for mayor of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, had no chance of winning my support yesterday.
And though Democrats may not want to see a connection between gubernatorial races and the national scene today, they were less reluctant in 2005. Writing about his ’05 victory in Virginia, outgoing governor and current DNC chair Tim Kaine acknowledged in 2006, “Voters in 2005 understood that Virginia was much better off than it had been four years earlier. At the same time, voters were anxious about the direction the country was going under Republican management.”
Voters again seem to be anxious about the direction the country is headed, this time under the new management team.
