Politico tries to sum up what we may have learned from the 2014 mid-term elections. This gem somewhat stands out, even if it isn’t surprising — “… equal-sized majorities of yesterday’s electorate held unfavorable views of each party.”
What may be surprising is the level of Americans animus toward Washington right now. If nothing else, it puts the lie to any hope and change narrative.
Oh and by the way … can you say taxed enough already?
Swing issues and voters can make the difference.
Mark Penn, chief strategy officer at Microsoft and former pollster and strategist to Bill and Hillary Clinton
In a nutshell, this was a swing election based on swing voters and swing issues. Whether in the Denver suburbs or the Maryland suburbs, previously reliable Democratic voters defected for moderate and, on the state level, often lower-tax messages.
That means Democrats will have to do a lot of thinking about whether they can win by just returning to the base or they need to reach out again broadly across the middle to enlist a wider coalition of Americans in solving the country’s big problems.