Living in Northern Virgina, I’m most surprised that Ken Cuccinelli won the attorney general race. Cuchinelli ran as a staunch conservative. (He used a Gadsden flag as his campaign logo!) My lovely voting district in Alexandria went 70% for Creigh Deeds. My neighbors knowingly voted for someone who said he would support tax increases. That is mind-boggling to me. However, when you live in a re-vitalized, artsy neighborhood, it’s not unexpected.

I hope conservatives realize that we aren’t going to coast to victory next year. Unless Democrats remain clueless and continue shoving health care and cap & trade down our throats, 2010 will still be a difficult battle. Today, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air wrote about rapid fall of Obama:

Obama will still be president for another three years, but the mystique is gone. New Jersey just taught Democrats in Congress a big lesson — Obama can’t get them re-elected. Being the President’s “partner” on his radical agenda is not a winning position; it wasn’t for Corzine in what should have been a secure blue state, and it certainly won’t be in moderate or conservative districts and states held by Democrats in the House and Senate.

That is a huge blow to Obama and his agenda, as Democrats now have to consider unpopular bills for ObamaCare and cap-and-trade in an entirely new light. If they fall in behind Obama instead of listening to their constituents, they will find themselves in retirement after the 2010 midterms. That’s the big lesson, and it will not be lost on moderate Democrats.

Glenn Reynolds also writes in the New York Post:

The Obama invincibility that was so much in evidence then seems to have lost its power. People can argue the reasons why these elections, all in places Obama carried handily, were so close. But if he were the political marvel he was thought to be, these races wouldn’t have been contests, but walkovers. So one consequence of this Election Day is the end of his special political magic.

Primaries may be worse.

People are just as angry at Republicans right now as they are Democrats. As I’ve often said here, Republicans have nearly forgotten that they’re supposed to be fiscal conservatives. I hope last night’s results sent a message to the highest levels of GOP leadership. Stop sending us moderates!

I’m curious to see if the momentum continues in tight primary races for conservatives, especially with Chuck  DeVore in California and Marco Rubio in Florida. The gubernatorial race in Tennessee is also worrisome. Will independent wealth or conservative principles prevail?