I'm baaack and the 2009 election

We had township supervisor, county, and a few state judicial elections this year. Typical turnout is 1 in 10.

Is was on of those years when I just shake my head. We had a CA carpetbagger running for township supervisor as a steppingstone to a higher office - or so it seems.

I do have to laugh a bit at Fox News. Most of the pundits had looked at the gubernatorial election in NJ as some kind of referendum on O; ignoring that all politics are local. It looked like Corzine was going to have a tough time even if the GOP ran a highly skilled llama. I said that a year in as a talked to friends, family and co-workers that live(d) in the garden state. NJ residents are fed up with the BS in that sate - proven by the relatively large turn out. O'reilly looked a bit deflated when exit polling showed that more than 60% of voters stated that O had no bearing on their decision. I'm not saying it wasn't a factor. Apparently, national heath care, etc. were not major issues in a state with the level of corruption ( major fed. sweep a few months ago) and tax/cost of living issues beyond Corzine's ideological alignment - go figure. Corzine's childish ad poking fun at Christie's weight probably cost him a point or two. If it was all about Obama and national politics then Dagget ( the third party candidate) would have siphoned off a few more votes than he did.

I don't think that a major ideological shift to the left occurred in 2008 and so I can't believe that major 'correction' to the right is happening now. 2008 was more about the people running, GWB, and the economy tanking than anything else. As a result, GOP turn out wasn't as good as it could have been and 'independent' trended towards different rather than reason. Additionally, McCain ran a mediocre and inconsistent campaign while Obama ran a very good, disciplined, and media aided one. Presidential elections are as much about they guy before and a good campaign as they are about policy.