Paul Waldman on the effect of off-year elections:
Few things bring out the inanity of the punditry quite like an off-year election, and we were served a steaming portion of it after last week’s results. If Democrats know what’s good for them, they’ll ignore all the advisement from the pundits about where they need to shift and what they need to fear — no easy task when the clucking is near deafening.
The New Jersey and Virginia governor’s races are always presented as though they have some Delphic power to reveal the future, for no reason other than the fact that, unlike those in the other 48 states, they occur in odd years when no other big elections take place. In the two races this year where national issues actually played a part — the special congressional elections in New York and California — Democrats won.
