Yes, Virginia, you are Santa Claus

The off-year elections just concluded have served notice on advocates of Big Government that Americans aren’t particularly interested in kowtowing to bureaucrats and still value their personal freedom.

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Nowhere was this message stronger than in the state of Virginia where Conservative Republican Bob McDonnell romped to a 60-40 victory over Creigh Deeds, his Democrat opponent, in what can easily be called a landslide. But more importantly, the Virginia state elections carry some larger and more ominous messages for Obama and the Democrats. The first message is that America is essentially a centre-right nation with citizens for whom personal freedom and responsibility matter. The reversal of President Obama’s circumstance in Virginia, where he carried the state by 7 percentage points over McCain one year ago, can be directly attributed to his extreme radical policies, which he is attempting to impose on a reluctant populace. And while the President feels essentially confident that his policies will prevail, the Democrats in Congress are beginning to sense that they’re on thin ice, particularly in those states that went for McCain last year. So the second message the Virginia election sends to Washington is that the so-called “blue-dog” Democrats that Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have been attempting to force into line are now facing the choice of voting for the Democrats’ ultra-radical agenda and being voted out of office next year or to defy the Democrat leadership and be voted out of office next year, as party support for them will dry up along with the necessary money to run a winning campaign. Talk about a rock and a hard place. The third message the Virginia gubernatorial elections are sending to Democrats is that independent voters are no longer in their back pocket, as many independents decamped the Democrats to vote for the republican candidate, not only in Virginia, but also in New Jersey, Where Democrat incumbent John Corzine went down in flames, despite spending close to $100 million of his own money to keep his seat. This could be the strongest message of all, as Team Obama was heavily invested in a Corzine victory with the President making no less than four campaign appearances to stump for the incumbent. What’s more, the Democrats, and specifically Obama will no longer be able to blame the nation’s woes on George W. Bush, as the economy, the healthcare debacle, cap and trade and rising unemployment can now be laid squarely at the feet of Obama. Obama has had a tendency to take his decisive victory a year ago as a referendum in favor of the “fundamental transformation of America”. Nothing could be further from the truth as yesterday clearly showed and as 2010 and 2012 will continue to show. While running for President, Barack Obama campaigned from the middle and is now attempting to govern from the extreme left, meaning he lied to voters (and his “change” is dashing all “hope”). The statement by the White House that the defeat in Virginia and New Jersey are not seen as a plebiscite against Obama’s policies is perhaps the best news to come out of this election. If the White House really believes that the Obama policies had nothing to do with yesterday’s losses, then they are committed to their efforts to continue trying to ram them down America’s throat. In doing so, they will continue to alienate a lot of voters who would much rather see prudent fiscal management, lower taxes, reduced government spending, an end to the bailouts of special interests and a less intrusive government. In persisting with these policies the stage for heavy Democrat losses will be set, as will the possibility of a one-term presidency a la Jimmy Carter.