Take a look at what identity politics/etc do --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPIP-i3sdVk

These people are for real! This is what the left is doing to people.

Good for Illinois!

For me what this election shows is four things
1. The death of conservatism was announced prematurely.
2. The mushy middle of the country was indeed "duped" into voting for Obama, BUT
3. Sarah Palin's Senate candidates got trounced. Badly. In some cases, despite bad or even repulsive opponents. (Hello, again, Sen. Murky!)
4. The Democrat machine is alive and well. And establishment politician incompetence is not by-itself a sufficient argument for conservatives. If Fenty vs. Gray in DC did not reveal this a couple months ago, the national midterms and the victories of Harry Reid, Loretta Sanchez, Barney Frank do emphatically.

Voters take a much more "national" view of senatorial elections than house seats. What this says for the future:

(A) Sarah will have a bad time of it trying for the nomination. If she wins it will be bloody and ugly. c.f. Alaska.

If Sarah wins the nomination, hello President Obama until Jan 2017. c.f. Christine O'Donnell
(B) Even if a less "Sarah PAC" candidate wins the nomination, odds are good we are looking at 6 more years of Obama. c.f. Harry Reid and Barney Frank.
(C) No chance of overturning Obamacare until 2013. And that chance is VERY small then. See points (A)&(B). Better hope Anthony Kennedy comes down on the Constitutional side of this one.
(D) No chance whatsoever of entitlement reform barring a massive catastrophe that wipes out Obama in 2012. This is extremely unlikely. Again, c.f. the Gray/Fenty race in DC.

tom,

Harry Reid had the fight of his life. All to the good. We are less one RINO in DE.

The decks have been cleared of supernumeraries.

I don't think Palin has her eyes on 2012. I think 2020 is her best shot. But who knows? 2 years is a very long time in Internet years.

I voted for Kiiiiiirk!, and I'm glad he won, but I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. This is Illinois, after all.

tom cuddihy
3. Sarah Palin's Senate candidates got trounced. Badly. In some cases, despite bad or even repulsive opponents. (Hello, again, Sen. Murky!)

Yes, and no. Her endorsed Tea Party linked Senate candidates, such as Angle in Nevada and O’Donnell in Delaware did not win. She fared better with establishment Republicans. Sarah Palin endorsed the following establishment Republicans, who won:
Pat Toomey won in Pennsylvania
Kelly Ayotte won in New Hampshire
John McCain won in Arizona

According to the WaPo’s Palin Tracker, here is the track record of the 60 candidates that Sarah Palin endorsed.

10 did not win primary
28 won
11 lost
10 undecided

As the WaPo link does not readily link to current results, I recommend the NYT tracker, which is more up to date. For example the WaPo Palin tracker lists Utah-2 as undecided, but the NYT shows it as a Democratic Party win, and a Palin-endorsed loss.

Excuse me, that should be 12 lost, not 11 lost. The lost figure is higher, but that is what the WaPo reported. Check it out w NYT tracker.

...Not to mention several of those candidates were long-shots in the first place.

Reid, for example, has a lock on Las Vegas. Clark County gave him a plurality of 60,000, compared to a plurality of 40,000 state-wide. Basically a single city determined the election. This is Palin's fault how?

Same thing with Delaware. O'Donnell won in two out of three counties (40k vs. 28k & 25k vs. 22k) but lost the third 123k to 57k. In fact, the totals for the Senate race (173,900 to 123,025) line up with the Congressional race (173,433 to 125,408). Or was that Palin's fault as well? In both races, New Castle County was a Democrat stronghold.

...And someone forgot to mention Rand Paul, one of her more infamous endorsements... ;)

As for "conservatism," one needs to define the term, as Eric disposes upstream of this post. The more the social cons try to recast Tea Party movements as "conservative" (i.e. social con), the more hindrance they'll be.

Me, I ask myself "What would Barry do?" Goldwater, that is.

...And someone forgot to mention Rand Paul, one of her more infamous endorsements... ;)
Thanks for catching that. Maybe I was trying to forget it.

Rand Paul!

Another libertarian in Congress.