Ruth Marcus
11/10/2010

The author notes the difference between Bill Clinton’s response to his “shellacking” in 1994 and Obama’s response to his in 2010. Both presidents spoke of voters’ dissatisfaction with Washington, but only Clinton understood that his defeat meant Washington, not the people, was in the wrong. While she supports President Obama’s agenda over the last two years, Marcus is uncomfortable with the presumption by Obama and Nancy Pelosi that their defeat was largely the result of not communicating more with the people. In other words, Pelosi and Obama blame the people’s inability to understand their lofty agenda. Obama may be able to reconnect, but Marcus sees little chance that Pelosi will.

Marcus is an editorial writer for The Post, specializing in American politics, campaign finance, the federal budget and taxes, and other domestic issues.

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Charles Krauthammer
11/5/2010

While it is being hailed as some sort of modern, exotic, technologically-driven wave, the recent Republican midterm victory is really just political history as usual. Swings are often preceded by social upheavals, and the Republican wave of 2010 is no exception. Voters reacted against the administration’s far-left policies and the arrogance with which they were delivered. Thus, Obama’s far-left agenda is dead, now and for future Democratic presidents. Clinton-style, center-left policies will once again be the successful ones. Nonetheless, President Obama’s Wednesday press conference was a clear indication that he remains clueless as to the role the people’s rejection of his policies played in his “shellacking.”

Krauthammer is a weekly columnist for The Post, writing on foreign and domestic policy and politics.

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David Brooks
11/5/2010

If politicians can figure out how to build a future for working class Americans in the Midwest, then our country has a future as a predominant power, Brooks says. He looks at the ironies within this group of people, as well as the last election results in which Democrats were destroyed as blue collar whites voted Republican. The trend towards putting center-right governments in power has also swept across Germany, Sweden, France, Britain, and elsewhere in Europe. In America, politics are volatile because no one has an answer for the working class, and volatility will continue until an answer is found.

Brooks is a New York Times columnist.

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Daniel Henninger
11/4/2010

If the new GOP Congress doesn’t do something fast to unlock the American economy, its most vulnerable members are going to be defeated in 2012. The consensus among economists is that unemployment will remain at 9% through 2011. A GOP with a 65-seat House majority and 47 Senate seats will not be immune to the surliest public mood any of us has seen. Tea partiers and the Republican Party want to cut spending. But they are mistaken if they think the federal budget is what drove this historic upheaval. Henninger says a genuine pro-growth economic agenda requires more than spending restraint, and if the GOP gets it wrong, he would rather not go where a volatile and angry electorate will take the country.

Henninger writes ‘Wonder Land’ for the Journal.

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Fred Barnes
11/4/2010

Republicans are better off after their landslide victory in the midterm election than even they imagine, and the Democrats are worse off. This situation could change quickly, but chances are it won’t. For starters, Republicans will continue to have issues on their side. The election reaffirmed that America is a center-right country and that a sizeable majority is anxious about government spending and debt, the president’s health-care plan, and jobs. Democrats may hope that Republicans elected with tea party support will cause a ruckus by demanding sweeping action. But Barnes thinks Democrats will have more trouble dealing with their own brethren who agree with Boehner’s advice that Obama change course.

Barnes is executive editor of the Weekly Standard and a Fox News commentator.

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Nicholas D. Kristof
11/4/2010

President Obama has not been able to muster an argument that resonates with the people that will benefit from the policies he has enacted, Kristof says. The president’s tenor has sharply differed from the poetic way he had campaigned, in addition to his failures of salesmanship and politics. Kristof says President Clinton would make a great tutor to follow to connect both the intellectual and the emotional with voters. Obama has a better product to sell to America than the Tea Partiers do. He needs to lose his cool and start slugging.

Kristof is a New York Times columnist.

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Timothy Egan
11/3/2010

President Obama saved capitalism for the big corporations, and at a terrible political price, Egan says. Under President Bush the economy was in the pits, with the worst stock market decline in the history of any president. Today, under President Obama, interest rates are at record lows, corporate profits are up, and it is one of the best years for earnings in a decade. He saved the automobile industry and more than 1 million jobs. Yet his three signature accomplishments–a health care law, financial reform, and the $814 billion stimulus package–have been rejected by the emerging majority. Obama should now recast himself as the protector of the consumer and veto any measures that attempt to roll back basic protections for people against insurance companies, Wall Street, and big oil.

Egan is a New York Times columnist.

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Jim DeMint
11/3/2010

DeMint congratulates all the Tea Party Republicans who overcame a determined, partisan opposition to win their elections. He advises them to put their boxing gloves on, as the fight begins today. While in Washington, he suggests they remember what the voters back home want: less government and more freedom. DeMint concludes that Tea Party Republicans were elected to go to Washington and save the country–not be co-opted by the club. It’s up to them to stop the spending spree and make sure we have a government that benefits America instead of being a burden to it.

DeMint is a Republican senator from South Carolina.

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Ari Fleischer
11/3/2010

Reflecting on the next Congress, Fleischer says life for Republicans also won’t be so simple, especially when it comes to spending. If the president wants to get things done, he must recognize that in Washington only he has the power to make the first big move. Fleischer advises the tea party freshmen to slow the galloping horses to a trot. He notes that big government was built over decades; it can’t be dismantled in a year, especially when Democrats control the White House. If Tea-party Republicans push too hard, they may blow their chances to actually reform entitlements and meaningfully roll back the size of government after the 2012 elections.

Fleischer, a former press secretary for President George W. Bush, is president of Ari Fleischer Communications.

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