Here comes the CW
by digby
This from Vox is representative:
Keeping the Senate was always going to be a challenge for Democrats this year, since they were defending so many seats in deep red states. But losses in Iowa and Colorado, swing states that Obama twice won, will be tougher to explain away if they transpire. And though Democrats will face a much more favorable map of Senate seats up in 2016, a larger GOP win this year would make it more difficult for the Democrats to regain control next cycle.
No, it’s not tough to explain why a Senate seat in a swing state in an off year election would go to the other party. That’s why they call it a swing state. They swing. It’s heartbreaking to see Harkin’s seat go to a cretin and for a good civil libertarian like Udall to be defeated by a liar but it’s not surprising, not at all.
And no, this election means nothing for 2016. Nothing. It’s a clean slate starting on Wednesday and the presidential race will shape what happens. If the 2010 wave didn’t shift the 2012 race then this one won’t shift the 2016 race either.
There is one consequence of a loss that nobody’s discussing and it’s the most pernicious. When Democrats lose it’s always seen as another sign they should move right. There are many incentives, both financial and political, for the Party to embrace that message and insist that whatever liberalish message they used in the losing campaign was the reason. I could see them deciding to soft-pedal the War on Women and possibly even have Hillary Sistah Soljah the feminists. (I hope not, but if the polling shows that women didn’t break for the Dems in the numbers they expected I could see it happening.)
The only thing that will be surprising on Tuesday is if somehow the Democrats manage to hang on to the majority or lose fewer than expected.
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