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The Comeback Begins

http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=Y2JmMTEwZDI2OTc2ZGU1MWZkMmQzM
jQ3YTEwNzYzZmU

By the National Review Editors

Conservatives scored some impressive victories on Election Day. In
Virginia, Robert McDonnell won the governor’s race in a landslide that
carried other conservative statewide officeholders and legislative
candidates to victory. New Jersey’s Chris Christie won his race by a
larger margin than any Republican had mustered since 1985 — and as a
candidate significantly to the right of previous Republican governors
such as Tom Kean and Christie Todd Whitman. Maine repealed a law that
accorded official recognition to same-sex unions as though they were
marriages.

The disappointment of the evening came in a special election for
Congress in upstate New York, where Conservative-party nominee Doug
Hoffman narrowly lost to Democrat Bill Owens. Local GOP party officials
bollixed the race from the beginning by picking liberal Dede
Scozzafava. With her campaign sinking beneath the waves, she pulled out
last weekend and then capped her disastrous foray by endorsing Owens.
Hoffman was a much better choice, and demonstrated the passion that is
animating the conservative grassroots on fiscal issues. But, a
first-time candidate, he lacked polish and a ready knowledge of local
issues. If there’s a lesson from the race besides the obvious — don’t
let out-of-touch GOP officials pick liberal congressional candidates —
it is that conservatives need to run campaigns based not only on their
philosophical soundness but on the improved conditions that this
soundness can be expected to generate. That was the template for
McDonnell’s huge victory. If his governance delivers on his promises,
explicit and implicit, he will be a model for Republicans nationwide.

Democrats are taking solace in the banal truth that these elections
were not solely referenda on President Obama. The Democratic candidate
in Virginia ran a pathetic campaign, and the Democratic governor of New
Jersey was a failure. The elections nonetheless offered proof (not that
any should have been needed) that Obama cannot transfer his popularity
to his allies. They showed that the powerful negative reaction to
President Bush may have run its course. And they suggested that
important aspects of Obama’s agenda are encountering formidable
resistance, not only from the core supporters of the Republican party
but also from independent voters. We would not blame the president if
he took up smoking again.

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