It will be interesting to see if the Democrats try to actually work on issues now, as REB says, or keep running with the Bush Derangement mode. I still wonder if Pelosi is going to be Speaker next year.

The Democrats ran a bunch of relatively conservative candidates this time around. I can't have been the only person whose eyebrows went up when Ford talked about his Lord and Saviour being his campaign manager. We'll see what happens there over the long run, particularly with my theory about the new movement in the "Independent" columns over coming years. Putting it more succinctly, this wasn't that good a night for the Kos Crowd either.

I will also agree with others that the Republicans, with their stupidity on their personal behavior, and their gleeful acceptance of "business as usual in Washington," threw this one away.

There were countless opportunities in the past few years for them to step up to the plate and say "Yes, we're still the party of smaller government that you sent to Washington in 1994," but they not only didn't do that, they practically rubbed their constituents' noses in their pork spending, their fight against more spending transparency, and the lobbying. Even if there had been not one hint of actual illegal behavior, this still would have stunk up the joint. The personal behavior issues were just icing on the cake.

Hey Republicans. Remember the Contract With America? Didn't think so.

Bush is not blameless. Even if you take Iraq off the table (and you really can't), as far as conservatives were concerned, he was no Ronald Reagan on a LOT of issues, and hasn't been for a long time. Imagine what could have been done if he's actually picked up that veto pen and kicked a lot of porky Republicans in the ass. Well, he sure as hell is going to need that pen now.

The Democrats took brilliant advantage of all this, managing to cut much of their powerful opposition completely out of the fight even before the elections.

This wasn't the Democrats getting lucky. This was Republicans coming into the ring drunk.

Now it's the Democratic Party's turn. If they think that this is a mandate for the 1970s and 1980s to come back in Congress, they may have another think coming, too. The dog caught the car, and the "we don't need ideas because we're not in power" gag isn't going to work any more. A hint: They'd better have a plan for Iraq other than unconditional surrender, which is all I've seen from them so far.

I analyzed my feelings this morning, and was surprised to find a lot of relief in the mix. Had the Republicans kept power, the Left and the Democrats would have gone psychotic. That boil has been lanced to a large degree (although the remaining Senate races have a lot of potential for nastiness), the media is happy and content, and I've seen economic feedback that indicates that gridlock might be just what the economy is looking for (see also: late 90s.)

That's all off the top of my head. A full analysis would take pages, and I don't get paid for this, so:

Some analysis off the blogs:

Kevin Drum

Bull Dog Pundit

Captain Ed, with a reference to--

National Review Online

Fred Barnes