US mid-term elections thread

[longfingernails]

Just getting it going - projections will start coming in the next couple of hours.

Personally, I hope that America will give Obama a real kicking!

Christine O'Donnell loses - should have been an easy Republican win, but she was an awful candidate.

Marco Rubio (possible 2012 candidate?) wins big in Florida.

Thanks longfingernails Will the major stuff be done and dusted by the morning, I wonder? Was feeling alert ten minutes ago but running out of steam now.

S'OK, have just looked at the Guardian timeline. May have to give up. Need to get a better phone so I can follow the next election from bed!

Yes, I think by the morning most of the races should be done. Though many seem very close, so we could see some hinging on absentee ballots and court cases.

Republican gain in Arkansas.

OK seems I am talking to myself! Time to go to sleep unless there are some lurkers...

Seems the polls were more or less spot on; Republicans win the House, and make massive gains in the Senate.

I'm just reading through the coverage now. According to the Guardian, Obama remains favourite to win election in 2012 though. Is that because there is uncertainty about a Republican candidate? I thought Palin was pretty certain to run, but does it seem that people still wouldn't pick her over Obama?

The GOP would be mad to pick Palin. She is, above all, stupid.

I think Mitch Daniels, Bobby Jindal and Marc Rubio are the ones to watch.

Part of the Guardian is just it being the Guardian - but incumbents do generally tend to win re-election by portraying the other party in Congress as obstructionist. Clinton did it very successfully.

Palin is not saying whether she will run yet. I think she will run and I think she will win it. The liberals will froth at the mouth over her candidacy, and that is what will sway the rest of America to vote for her.

I wish I had seen this thread earlier this week - I seemed to be the only one amongst my friends/colleagues who gave a sh!t...

Yes polls seem to have been pretty accurate and on the whole not a very surprising night. The party of the sitting president often takes a hammering in mid-terms (especially first term mid-terms) as it's a protest against problems not being immediately solved in the first two years, and a dislike of the status quo. Presidentials are a bit different.

Agree wtih longfingernails that the GOP would be mad to pick Palin for 2012. A hell of a lot of 'normal' republicans recognise the fact that she is just not presidential material, no gravitas, little intelligence, and a platform that alienates the majority of reasonable moderate republicans. I had read that a number of prominent GOP folks have even said they would have to vote Democratic if Palin were the Republican nominee.

D