Will this be a victory day that signals the comeback of the Right? Will today’s results signal anything? We asked friends of National Review Online to predict the outcome — and impact — of today’s elections. DAN CASEY My very edgy predictions: New Jersey: Chris Daggett will lose. Virginia: The Washington Post will declare the Virginia governor’s race results not a referendum on President Obama. – Dan Casey is a public-affairs consultant and Republican strategist. LEE EDWARDS If, as now seems quite possible, Republicans win the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey and the special congressional election in New York, this much is clear:

Given a choice, a majority of those who voted in these three key states rejected progressivism — with its siren song of an ever-expanding, more “efficient” administrative state — and endorsed conservatism — with its firm commitment to the founding principles of our nation. Those principles include such time-tested ideas as limited constitutional government, individual freedom and responsibility, and free enterprise.

For a brilliant exposé of the un-American aims of the progressive movement and a persuasive explanation of how to apply conservative principles to the challenges of today, I refer you to We Still Hold These Truths, published this week by my Heritage Foundation colleague Matthew Spalding. Based on the Virginia, New Jersey, and New York results, as well as the hundreds and thousands of tea parties and town halls this year, I predict that Dr. Spalding’s book will be a best-seller.

There’s just something about certain truths that resonate with the American people. – Lee Edwards is a distinguished fellow in Conservative Thought at the Heritage Foundation. JONAH GOLDBERG Hoffman will win. McDonnell will win, and carry most of the down-ticket candidates with him. In New Jersey it will go late into the night, but Corzine will probably squeak by. The “winner” will be announced the next day, and his victory will have considerable voter-irregularity stink to it. The press, partly out of boredom with the referendum-on-Obama storyline and partly out of a desire to focus attention on those crazy right-wingers, will spend much of its time and energy yakking about this “civil war” nonsense. Oh yeah, one more prediction: Josh Goldberg will shock the cognoscenti with his historic showing in the New York City Council race. – Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Online and the author of Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning. HUGH HEWITT I’d like to watch Evan Bayh, Michael Bennet, and Blanche Lincoln watch the Virginia results roll in tonight — and if Chris Christie pulls out a win in New Jersey, a Chris Dodd cam would be amusing, as well. Senate Democrats facing re-election in twelve very short months must be alarmed by all the polling data indicating the country’s rejection of the Obama-led lurch to the left. Soon, hard data will be on hand showing just how short-lived the president’s electoral pull has proven to be. The Commonwealth’s massive shift back towards common sense will mark a real end to Obamamania (outside of the Manhattan-Beltway media elite), and if the president proves unable to prop up Jon Corzine in New Jersey, even folks like California senator Barbara Boxer (who is up for re-election next November) will have to begin to worry.

The Blue Dogs will be studying not just New York’s 23rd district, but California’s 10th — where Democrat John Garamendi, the state’s sitting lieutenant governor, ought to be swamping GOP candidate David Harmer by 30 points, but isn’t. If Harmer is within single digits of Garamendi, House Democrats in districts that McCain carried or even came close to carrying in 2008 will have to reconsider their coming vote on Obamacare.

A Garamendi win, by the way, sets off a race to gain Arnold’s nod for appointment as the new lieutenant governor. As perhaps the least difficult job in all of politics, the line will be long. I am declaring my candidacy with a pledge neither to accept any pay for the job nor to show up in Sacramento for any duties. If my criticism of Arnold’s often inexplicable governing choices keeps me off the short list, then I nominate Dennis Miller. The state could use a few laughs. – Hugh Hewitt is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host, blogger, and author. MARK R. LEVIN Today’s election results will be a complete repudiation of Obama’s radicalism and the political death of many so-called Blue Dog Democrats who have helped advance it. Reagan conservatism is back, and the GOP establishment can either embrace it or get rolled over by it.

– Mark R. Levin is the author of the New York Times bestseller Liberty and Tyranny and a nationally syndicated talk-show host. KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ Today could prove to be a good day for the Right. Leading the victory pack could very well be Bob McDonnell, whose message is: Attract people with ideas and plans. Make promises that you can deliver on and that are appropriate to your office. Don’t let the media distract you or your campaign or the electorate with their agenda. With Chris Daggett in the race to confuse things, I don’t know if Chris Christie wins. But he can win. He can win if New Jersey voters who are unhappy with Jon Corzine get out to vote for him today. I don’t know if Doug Hoffman wins. But if he does, it’s going to be encouraging for conservatives, who feel a little powerless in the political world right now. Ideas matter. And they can shake up political races; even if Hoffman doesn’t win, that much is clear. The media are going to write about a self-destructive “vast right-wing conspiracy” in the wake of the frenzy around NY-23. But this is how a party renews itself: It figures out what the heck it wants to fight for. – Kathryn Jean Lopez is an editor-at-large of National Review Online. JOHN J. MILLER In Virginia, Republicans will sweep the three statewide elections. Soon-to-be governor Bob McDonnell will show coattails as the GOP also gains strength in the state legislature. This will be the best Republican year in Virginia since 1997. In New Jersey, never bet against a Democrat, especially if he’s an incumbent. In NY-23, Doug Hoffman will win. This will be the story of the night, at least if the MSM chooses to tell it. Even if it doesn’t, grassroots conservatives will know what happened. Hoffman’s example will inspire them as they prepare for 2010. It will provide a big boost for the likes of Marco Rubio in Florida. – John J. Miller is national correspondent for National Review. His personal website is http://www.heymiller.com/ JOHN J. PITNEY JR. Virginia: McDonnell by 15 points over Deeds, carrying down-ticket candidates with him. New Jersey: Christie by 2, provided that dead people don’t vote. New York City: Bloomberg by 10. NY-23: Hoffman by 2. CA-10: Garamendi by 5. Whatever happens in NY-23, Democrats will try to claim victory. Hoffman’s rise, they will say, means that conservatives and Republicans will never tolerate moderate candidates. Nonsense. In New Jersey, Christie beat a much more conservative candidate in the GOP primary. In California, the three major GOP gubernatorial candidates favor legal abortion. Perhaps the most convincing evidence to the contrary is the New York Conservative party itself. It has often supported Republicans with less-than-perfect conservative records, including Governor Pataki, Senator D’Amato and — in NY-23 — Rep. John McHugh, whose 2008 Americans for Democratic Action rating was 60 percent. Conservatives are indeed willing to build bridges to moderates, but the leftish and erratic Scozzafava was a bridge too far. – John J. Pitney Jr. is the Roy P. Crocker professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. With James Ceaser and Andrew Busch, he is co-author of Epic Journey: The 2008 Elections and American Politics. CAL THOMAS Virginia: McDonnell by double digits. Virginia has been purple in recent elections because Republicans have strangled it with candidates who have sucked the oxygen out of voter enthusiasm. The GOP will make a comeback. New Jersey: Depends on the dead vote, the inmate vote, the illegal-alien vote, and the number of ghost voters the unions and their fellow travelers turn out for Corzine, who has everything going against him except Democrats who apparently are fine with buying elections, high taxes, and corruption. NY-23: Hoffman will win, but there is a greater lesson here for the GOP establishment, which endorsed Scozzafava and then saw her endorse the Democrat after she withdrew due to low polling numbers. Ideas should trump party label. What was that about pigs and lipstick? (I am quoting Obama from the 2008 campaign, so let’s not have any letters from feminists and pig-lovers.) Gay-rights ballot initiatives in Maine and Washington State: These things have usually gone against gay-rights activists when placed before voters, but these two vast Unitarian wasteland states offer hope to those who want their behavior protected by law. If voters don’t approve, the activists will be back until they wear us down. Congressional adulterers are watching this one closely. – Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist and co-author of the book, Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That Is Destroying America. VIN WEBER My instinct is that Republicans will sweep all three statewide offices in Virginia while making gains in the legislature, win the NY-23 special election comfortably (as a Minnesotan, “comfortably” means any outcome not resulting in a six-month recount), and eke out a win in New Jersey. The short-term impact of such a strong Republican night will be to make nervous Capitol Hill Democrats even more nervous. The scheduled House vote on health care, about 36 hours after the election results are known, will be interesting. Longer term, Democrats in Congress will engage in a lot of soul-searching on cap-and-trade, taxes, and the rest of their agenda. In macro-political terms, such an electoral outcome will reflect the increased intensity of the vote on the right. The idea embraced by many after the last election — that we have turned the page and are entering a new era of “progressive” politics — will be dealt a serious blow as a populist conservative movement asserts itself in a still-right-of-center nation. Of course, I could be wrong. – Vin Weber is managing partner of Clark & Weinstock’s Washington office.