Winners and Losers: 2010 election impact on 2012 candidates

[nhmagic]

Winners

John Boehner - obviously, and I dont see a challenge to him being speaker
The GOP as a whole - winning so deeply with the gubernatorial races and legislative districts puts people on the bench they can run into the next decade, particularly in 2012 and 2014, very healthy...
Mitch McConnell (unfortunately) - he doesnt have to many tea party esque battles in the senate and he also doesnt have to worry about the moderates controlling everything either in the event that the senate was won
Harry Reid - ugh, though this may be for the best
Barbara Boxer - the second of the two boxers in the race and she walloped Fiorina in Los Angeles - still a single misstep in the campaign by Boxer could have given this to Fiorina - she realized early it was going to be tough and adjusted

Draw

Tea Party - impact felt in some places, not so much in others - having been successfully absorbed into the GOP (Rubio is a perfect example of this, as is Ayotte) with an establishment look

Obama - it honestly depends on how things play out, he could have planned for this and we dont know - there was one huge thing I noticed with his speech today and that was no teleprompter, smart move...portends hes realizing the micro-aspects of his approach

Losers

Nancy Pelosi - no competitive or slightly competitive democrat will ever associate in the way they did with her again, forced into retirement

Chucky Schumer and Dick Durbin - no vacancy in the majority leader slot, and people like Webb, McCaskill, Begich, etc are going to vote against him seeing the power of his win.  There is a nasty leadership battle coming though...

Obama - gone are Obama zombies for the most part, and now more people than ever will be taking more rational looks at the policies he promotes.  Also, some dems smell blood in the water and Russ Feingold is unemployed now...where's Hillary btw?

MSNBC - no one watches them, no one ever did

Rust Belt Unions and Card Check - Unions screwed the pooch big last night and only on the west coast were they effective