The 2010 midterm elections were a historic victory for those of us who wanted to hit the brakes on the Obama leftist agenda. From federal elections to local contests throughout our country, Republican candidates touting conservative policy positions were elected nationwide.
Not only did the Republicans pick up seats in the United States House of Representatives and Senate, but Republican candidates gained 7 governorships and more than 500 state legislature seats. Several states have turned Republican for the first time in decades.
Regardless of whether such national and state victories were protest votes against Obama or were votes from citizens who wanted a conservative governing philosophy, the reality is that Republicans now control the United States House of Representatives and with the likelihood of many vulnerable Senate Democrats voting with its 46 Republicans, President Obama’s dream of a European style socialist government are finished.
The big question is whether Obama will go down fighting or accept the results of the election and work with Republicans to govern from the middle as President Clinton successfully did to be elected to a second term. Having watched Obama’s press conference and his media interviews thereafter, I think he will go down fighting since he does not believe his ideals were rejected. Instead, he thinks it was his failure to effectively communicate his achievements. He will fight because his ego requires that he be remembered for changing America regardless if such change was not wanted. And his fight will take place in executive orders and policies rather than legislation.
Outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi also believes she and her ideals were not the reason for the historic Democratic defeat. She continues to believe that passing ObamaCare, Financial Reform, and a massive stimulus plan against the will of a majority of Americans had to be done and she is quite proud at doing so. Ditto for Senate President Harry Reid who kept his seat despite the high unemployment and depressed economy of his Nevada homeland thanks to twisting lots of arms and providing free lunches to voters.
I look forward to seeing Pelosi’s protégé, local Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, back in a minority role although her commendable political skills will unfortunately keep her relevant in Washington. Perhaps we will again see her on CSPAN in the middle of the night lecturing an empty House chamber about the culture of corruption in Washington. Unfortunately her cohort in those laughable moments, Kendrick Meeks, will not be able to join her as his bid for a US Senate Seat failed to even win most Democratic voters.
Also here in Florida, Republicans now have veto proof control of both the State House and Senate meaning that the Democrats will not be able to slow down a conservative agenda with their fairness arguments. It will be interesting to see how Governor-elect Scott works with the leaders in both chambers. Hopefully they will join him in putting the state back to work rather than following the lead of lobbyists who helped finance their legislative election machines. As we all know, Governor-elect Scott virtually financed his own election and has no obligations to anyone other than the voters who elected him.
While Governor-elect Scott was not a perfect candidate given his inexcusable style of delegating at Columbia-HCA, I believe his intent for our state is commendable. The last four years of virtually nothing being done for Florida by Governor Crist was predicted by me before he was elected in 2006. You may recall I backed his Republican challenger at the time. Crist’s cowardly defection from the Republican Party to run as an Independent against Senator-elect Marco Rubio was also not a surprise to me but I was shocked at the continued support for Crist by many prominent Broward County Republicans.
Personally, I feel great about the 2010 election results and am proud to have backed the winning candidates for Governor and US Senator early during the primary and general elections. I am also proud for America to have put conservative Republicans back in control of so many important states which will yield positive results for those states and for our country today and into the next election season in 2012.
