AND ABOUT THAT ELECTION – AT 2:08 P.M. ET:   We have been assured by the highest level of the punditry that we've just had a wave election, won by the purist of people.  But, as the late George Gobel used to say, wait a gosh-darned moment.  There is probably no better political analyst writing today than Salena Zito, who accurately predicted the 2016 presidential election, and gives her cool, sane analysis to the one we've just had.  From the Washington Examiner: 

Between the time Barack Obama took the oath of office in 2009 and the time Donald Trump took the oath in 2017, Democrats lost nearly 1,000 congressional, state House, and Senate seats in nearly every nook and cranny in the country. They also lost the majorities in the state legislatures, governors' offices, and statewide elected offices.

Two years into the Trump presidency, Democrats swung nearly 380 — about one-third — of those state House and Senate seats back into their column. They also flipped seven governors' seats their way as well as 40 congressional House seats, additionally regaining several of the statewide elected offices.

What does this tell us? And how will Washington, D.C., interpret these results?

In 2006, when the Democrats took the House and scored wins up and down the ballot, the party seemed to mistakenly read that as a sign that America really liked them.

Four years, billions in bailouts, and an Obamacare later, Republicans erased the Democrats' House wins and demolished the Democrats in governors’ and state legislative seat races. Republicans, in their folly, thought: Well, America must really like us now.

Eight years later, we swung again as Democrats wiped out the House Republicans' majority with fairly moderate candidates who ran on not voting for Nancy Pelosi for speaker of the House again.

And Democrats are tempted to think: Oh look, America likes us again, and we’ll just get right back on that same the path with the same leadership team, which is very good at raising money!

But does the coast-heavy Democratic leadership know anything about the districts outside of their super ZIP codes of the Beltway, California, New York, and Chicago?

COMMENT:  Read the rest of the piece.  It's an object lesson in the practicality of American politics, which is its strength.  Americans demand a return to the equilibrium in politics.  If Democrats, or Republicans, stray too far from the center, the voters push them back.  American politics is not ideological, it's idealistic.  Zito argues that the fringes may get the headlines, and make the noise, but the great body of voters keep things on an even keel.

I look forward to more from Salena.  She's based in Western Pennsylvania, outside the punditry capitals of the world, so her mind is clear, and adult.

December 2, 2018