Will Republicans take the Senate in the election?

Thanks Brandon, George.

I experienced that awkward moment in an argument where I knew I was wrong.

Reflecting on what he could have done differently and what he will change moving forward, Obama says he will work harder to become a better salesman.
"I think that one thing that I do need to constantly remind myself and my team of is it's not enough just to build a better mousetrap. People don't automatically come beating to your door. We've got to sell it," Obama said. "We've got to reach out to the other side and, where possible, persuade."
"I think that what you'll see is a constant effort to improve the way we deliver service to customers...experimenting with ways that I can reach out to Republicans more effectively. Making sure that we're reaching out and using the private sector more effectively."
Looking back, the President admits that he sometimes struggled to work politics into policy negotiations, a weakness that affected his ability to communicate his positions to members of the opposite party and to the American people.
"I think there are times -- there's no doubt about it -- where, you know, I think we have not been successful in going out there and letting people know what it is that we're trying to do and why this is the right direction," Obama said. "So there is a failure of politics there that we've got to improve on."

Yet voters hold positions on a variety of noneconomic issues that are out of favor with the conservatives they just installed in the new Congress.

More than half the voters in House races said that immigrants living in the United States illegally should be given a chance to stay if they are working, rather than face deportation. That's a position quite unpopular among the GOP lawmakers who will take office in January.

Nearly half the voters said in the exit polls they favor same sex marriages, more than half said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and well over half said climate change is an important problem.

The same electorate also installed anti-abortion and likely anti-gay marriage majorities in both houses of Congress and elected candidate after candidate who declined to take a position on climate change during the campaign.

About 46 percent of the voters said the president's health care law was about right or didn't go far enough, and 49 percent said it went too far. It's hardly an overwhelming mandate for Republicans to resume the repeal efforts that their tea party supporters are demanding as the spoils of victory.

Lest Republicans get too comfortable with Tuesday’s sweeping victory, the exit poll also contained plenty of warnings for the GOP. As recounted by Mr. Langer, here are some:

• Sixty percent of voters say they are dissatisfied or angry with the Republican leadership in Congress.

• Some 54 percent of voters say they have an unfavorable opinion of the Republican Party – equal to the percentage who view the Democrats unfavorably.

• Tuesday’s election was bad for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a.k.a. Obamacare, but not as bad as it might seem. Forty-six percent of voters said they think the law didn’t go far enough or had it about right, nearly equal to the 48 percent who say the ACA went too far.

• Forty-nine percent supported same-sex marriage; 48 percent opposed it.

• Fifty-three percent said they support legal abortion; 43 percent oppose it.

• Fifty-eight percent said they see climate change as a serious problem.

These data show that the Democrats have the upper hand on key social issues. For most voters, gay rights, abortion rights, and climate change are not the most important issues. The economy is still and will ever remain No. 1. But if the Republicans are to appeal to the broader, presidential-election-year electorate, they may need to rethink their posture on these issues – if not switching positions outright, at least deemphasizing them.

Another issue in the exit poll that might present opportunity for common ground is immigration reform. A majority of voters said they favor offering people in the country illegally a way to stay.

• Sixty percent of voters say they are dissatisfied or angry with the Republican leadership in Congress.

• Some 54 percent of voters say they have an unfavorable opinion of the Republican Party – equal to the percentage who view the Democrats unfavorably.

What! They rate republicans as not a good party, but they vote them back in?

Only 36.4 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the midterm general election, marking the lowest voter turnout in 72 years.

The last time voter turnout was that low was in 1942 when only 33.9 percent of eligible Americans participated in the election just after the county had entered World War II, according to a projection by the United States Elections Project at the University of Florida.

Turnout in Maine, where both the incumbent governor and a senator were on the line, was the highest of the states with just over 59 percent of voters participating in the election. Indiana had the lowest turnout at just 28 percent.

While turnout is always lower in midterm elections than during presidential election. years, voter interest in this election was at an extreme low despite a number of potentially competitive Senate races and controversial ballot initiatives. Midterm election turnout is also historically lower among groups that are more likely to support Democratic candidates, which was a significant factor in a number of surprising losses by Democrats across the county.

Newly implemented voter ID laws and other methods of voter suppression including shortened early voting periods also played a part in keeping people away from the polls. In Texas, voters were forced to cast twice as many provisional ballots compared to the previous midterm election, even as overall turnout dropped almost 4 percent. Despite the low national numbers, turnout did increase from 2010 in ten states this year, including Colorado where new voting rights legislation meant that every registered voter received a ballot in the mail.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) responded to the poor turnout on Friday by announcing he will propose a bill to make Election Day a federal holiday to make it easier for people to find the time to vote. His proposal follows a long line of lawmakers who have attempted similar election reforms— just two years ago, Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) introduced the Weekend Voting Act to make the election fall over a weekend, but the bill never made it past committee. And in 2005, then-Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and John Kerry (D-MA) also sponsored a bill to give voters Election Day off from work.

“We should not be satisfied with a ‘democracy’ in which more than 60 percent of our people don’t vote and some 80 percent of young people and low-income Americans fail to vote,” Sanders said. “We can and must do better than that.”