Well, We Knew It Would Be Bad

Image via WikipediaMid-term election over - check. Bloodbath for House Dems - check. I'm looking for bright spots.

One is that here in New York we didn't do too badly if you don't count the State Senate. We'll have Andrew Cuomo for Governor. That could be good. I just hope he doesn't crash and burn like the last two. Eliot Spitzer was practically coronated rather than elected and most people were delighted and then...well, you probably heard something about how that turned out. Thing is, even before the hooker problem arose he was busy not getting along with anyone. That's fine in a crusading Attorney General. Not great in a Governor. Then when David Patterson replaced him almost everyone, on both sides of the aisle, seemed pretty pleased. Turns out he was just great as a legislator, but the executive branch really wasn't his best thing. Still, Cuomo's been impressive and he might have a more political mentality than Spitzer. One can only hope.

We also returned out Democratic Senators and our House Rep as well. Actually, I'm not sure of the name of the Republican who opposed our Congressman, so he didn't run a particularly stellar race, I'm guessing. On the other hand, in the CD next door, Tim Bishop had more of a fight on his hands. He's quite progressive and is always a GOP target. He won and his campaign should be a lesson to everyone. His opponent had an achilles heel. He 's a businessman and he had, apparently, been an outsourcing enthusiast. And that's all you heard about him from the Bishop campaign. It was all I knew about the guy by the end of the campaign season. Negative campaigning? You bet. But it was a clear message and it spoke to the concerns of the vast majority of the electorate in a way that they could understand. No wonkery required. I hope someone takes note of it for the next time around.

Another compensation is that at least there'll be someone besides Democrats for the progressive media to attack. We sure do know how to depress our own vote. That's one reason why I stopped reading almost every blog and forum I loved during the Bush years. Stopped blogging politics, too.  Obama hadn't even unpacked before the circular firing squad formed around him. Maybe - just maybe - they can turn the guns around just a bit now? I hope so, but I'm definitely not going back to living and breathing politics. I'm too old to spend all of what time is left just raising my own blood pressure. (That's more a resolution than anything else, but I'm hoping to keep it.)