Renewed Hope for Gridlock?

The results of yesterdays two gubernatorial elections - big wins for Republicans in Virginia and New Jersey - provide renewed hope for people with political preferences like mine:

The only thing worse than the Republicans is the Democrats, and vice versa.

Thus, I am not pleased because I want Republicans rather than Democrats to run the country; I am pleased because I want gridlock: a Congress with sufficient Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats to defeat most of the initiatives proposed by liberal Democrats.

Gridlock is not the ultimate goal, of course; I would like to see the U.S. eliminate huge amounts of existing government. But for starters, not enacting any new government would be an improvement over the path Democrats will adopt unconstrained.

It is nevertheless too early to forecast what will happen in the mid-term elections next year. If the economy has recovered substantially, the Democrats may hold their own. Last night's results nevertheless suggest that independents may be less enthusiastic about President Obama and the Democrats than they were last fall, and this should tilt the composition of Congress toward the Republicans.

That is one reason the Democrats are pushing so hard to get their agenda adopted immediately. They know their window of opportunity may soon close.