The Dangers of Parsing Tuesday’s Elections

No matter how they are spun, rerun and overdone, the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races are not national referenda. Even if the expected occurs — and Republican Bob McDonnell romps home in Virginia and New Jersey Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine wins a second term — it will be difficult to decipher an overarching message on Nov. 3. These statewide races will tell us far more about voter attitudes towards roads in Roanoke and property taxes in Paramus than anything about the 2010 congressional elections or Obama’s political future.

– Walter Shapiro, Politics Daily