Losers

Northern Republicans:

While republican Susan Collins held her senate seat in Maine, New Hampshire republican senator john Sununu lost his senate seat. Chris shays lost in Connecticut, and with that, there aren’t any more house republicans in New England. An area that was once a haven to moderate republicans has become toxic to all but the most popular and moderate republicans. Look for democrats to target Judd Greg in 2010, and a possible cabinet position or party change for Olympia Snowe (R-ME). Republicans in New York lost three house seats, and are now left with the same number in the state. They also lost the New York senate, depriving them of any power within Albany. Republicans failed to win any house seats in Pennsylvania, losing one in the process, along with losses in New Jersey, Maryland, and the loss of electoral votes in Indiana. Of the four house seats the republicans gained, three came from the south. Being a regional party (especially one primarily in the south) is never an advantageous place to be.

Bill Clinton:

Bill’s legacy will take a beating over the next four to eight years. Aside from Hillary losing the primary, despite all of his efforts, there’s the inevitable comparisons between Obama’s win and Clinton’s wins. While Clinton won more electoral votes than Obama, Obama has the mandate that Clinton never did. Obama won a majority of the vote, turned three states blue that Clinton never did, and unlike Clinton, Obama had gains in the house and senate when elected. If Obama governs better than Clinton, then people may start to forget the good times during the Clinton years and focus more on the scandals and impeachment. One good piece note for Clinton is he no longer holds the record for worst performance in the south for a winning democrat. Obama only won three southern states to Clinton’s four.

Missouri

As this is being written, McCain holds a 6,000 vote lead in Missouri. Should this hold, it would mean that Missouri’s record of always voting for the winner of the presidential election since 1956 would be over. This may not bold well for Missouri democrats, but considering they took the governor’s seat, they probably don’t have to worry about that.

Wave prognosticators

Almost every media outlet predicted a wave election with +30 democratic gains in the house and 7-9 senate seats gained. While the senate is still up in the air, it is unlikely that democrats could get more than seven seats. It appears the democrats will be victorious in a net total of 17-20 seats. It was a good night for dems, but not a wave. The media was way off on this.

Gay rights activists.

Gay marriage bans passed all over the country and one such ban is likely to pass in California. Arizona, which in 2006 voted against such a ban, reversed course, voting to ban gay marriage. While democrats won big in the election, they’d be wise to avoid issue of gay marriage, or at least tread cautiously, lest they incur the publics wrath.

Clean government fans

Convicted felon Ted Stevens appears likely to win re-election in Alaska, along with Alaska house rep Don Young who’s being investigated by the FBI. William Jefferson, the democratic Congressman who was caught with thousands of dollars in his fridge is likely to return to congress. Seriously? A CONVICTED FELON??!!??!! What the hell Alaska, what the hell?

Turnout.

While results are still coming in, it doesn’t look like turnout was that much higher than it was in 2004. It might increase by one million votes or so, but at the moment, the number votes in 08 look the same as in 04.

Dubya

There are so many reasons why he lost, but here’s a big one. Bush lost the distinction of having the votes for president, and unless McCain gets a lot of votes, he will keep the distinction of having being elected, but still have more people voting against him than any other person elected president.