Only a year after the elections that marked the fate of Barack Obama and gave the opportunity of a change to the United States, the Democrats, today, cannot celebrate. In the 2009 Election Day, the first real test for the President, the Democrats lost Virginia and New Jersey. The Virginia case is not a real news, because it has always been a Republican state and only last year, for the first time in 40 years, it decided to choose a Democrat. But the defeat in New Jersey means something.
Because in this case the Republicans were not winning since 12 years and because Obama went visiting New Jersey three times to bring his support (the last time on Sunday).
So, despite the polls say the president still has the support of 54% of Americans, the news of his party defeat has made the rounds of newspapers and overall it was an alarm for the next round of the midterm election in 2010. At that time it will renew one third of the Senate, the entire House of Representatives and more than two thirds of the governors.
Even New York, who also openly supported Obama in the presidential elections, has re-elected Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg. But this election day has cost really much to the Mayor: according to some, he would have spend $ 140 million to be sure of winning.
According to The New York Times, the Republican victory in New Jersey and Virginia put the party in a stronger position to turn back the political wave President Obama unleashed last year, setting the stage for Republicans to raise money, recruit candidates and ride the excitement of an energized base as the party heads into next year's midterm elections.
The real problem Obama will need to face is the loss of "his electorate". Young people, Afro-American, first voters: this was the largest electoral base that allowed the victory of President and this time, however, was missing. The average age of voters was 65 years and was even higher in Virginia and New Jersey.
The vote of the independent electorate vanished, too, because this time they preferred to vote for Republicans. David Axelrod, an adviser to Obama, plays down saying that "the results depend on local circumstances", thus by the candidate.
Is it possible that America wants to punish him already? According to many polls, the president would not have been the determining factor in the choice of this election. But doubts still stand. So the Democrats kick back and try to list all Obama results, before making wrong balance. "A year has passed since a clear majority of Americans have elected Obama to change the world. And that is exactly what he is doing," says the influential columnist and Pulitzer Prize, Eugene Robinson.
Obama has prevented the severe economic crisis from turning into another Great Depression, avoiding the collapse of the system; he opened the dialogue with Islam; he has decisively reversed the path of the United States on the issue of climate change; he's going to close Guantanamo and bringing home the troops from Iraq (even if the strategy in Afghanistan is different.) Above all, he is trying to make a health care reform that no president before him was able to do. But just few hours before the polls closed, the Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid had to admit that most likely they will miss the 60 votes needed to pass health care reform.
And if it were to happen, then America will have to stop dreaming, after just one year. Only Obama, once again, may reverse the route.
A Year After dousing, Republicans' Hope Rekindled By ADAM NAGOURNEY The New York Times
Contests serve as warning to Democrats: It's not 2008 anymore By Dan Balz dal Washington Post
Marianna Lepore
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