The GOP Scores Big Wins In Mid-Term Elections
The New York Times: "Republicans captured control of the House of Representatives on Tuesday and expanded their voice in the Senate, riding a wave of voter discontent as they dealt a setback to President Obama just two years after his triumphal victory. A Republican resurgence, propelled by deep economic worries and a forceful opposition to the Democratic agenda of health care and government spending, delivered defeats to House Democrats from the Northeast to the South and across the Midwest" (Zeleny, 11/2).
NPR: "Even after Tuesday's ballots are counted, the results remain open to interpretation, according to many analysts. NPR's Mara Liasson sees it this way: If Republicans succeed, they must decide whether the results give them a true mandate for an agenda that might include tax cuts, smaller government and a repeal of the federal health care overhaul. Democrats still hold the White House and the Senate, but they may not be able to get much done in these highly partisan times" (Neuman and Holzman, 11/3).
The Wall Street Journal: "Among seniors, the two parties were at parity in 2006; Republicans now hold a large advantage among voters age 65 and older. Equally damaging for the Democrats, seniors-who were heavily courted by Republicans this year with ads attacking Mr. Obama's health-care overhaul-appear to represent a larger share of the electorate than four years ago" (Wallsten and Yadron, 11/3).
The Associated Press: "Flush with new power, congressional Republicans say they'll work with President Barack Obama to cut spending and create jobs - but on their terms. The midterm elections that returned House control to the GOP after four years was a rebuke to Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, their stewardship of the struggling economy, their overhaul of the nation's health care system, and more" (Kellman, 11/3).
The New York Times, in a second story: "In leading his party to midterm triumph, Representative John A. Boehner, the next speaker of the House, is at the beginning of the next and harder fight. ... [A]mong the first things that Mr. Boehner has said he will seek to accomplish are reversing cuts to the Medicare program and extending the expiring Bush-era tax cuts, steps that are hard to reconcile with a commitment to reining in the national debt" (Steinhauer, 11/3).
Time: "There's no doubt that voting for the Affordable Care Act made lots of Democratic incumbents vulnerable this year. Still, it's difficult to attribute losses to a single issue. Exit polls indicate jobs and the economy were far more important to voters this year. But there are clear signs that pundits who predicted high-profile losses for the Democratic Party in districts and states where health care was a major campaign issue were right" (Pickert, 11/2).
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