The always worthwhile Jay Cost looks at the recent electoral fortunes of Arlen Specter, Scott Brown, Dan Coats, Mike Sodrel, Charlie Crist, and Bob Bennett and concludes:
This is the thunder on the mountain, the early warning that something bad is about to blow through the District of Columbia. I don’t think there’s anything anybody can do about it. The people have a limited role in this government – but where the people do possess power, they are like a force of nature. They cannot be stopped.
I have a minor quibble, and I expressed it in a recent chat with NRO’s Will Cain. Perceptions change when realities change. If the unemployment rate drops dramatically, incumbents will be in better shape. (I don’t think that will happen.) If President Obama announces that we’ve captured or killed Osama bin Laden, the nation’s mood will change. Of course, if something blows up, then the voters might conclude that the current governing class is a bunch of spendthrift buffoons who can’t even meet their first duty of protecting the people.
While time is running low for the mood of the country to change dramatically, it could still happen and – no pun intended – can happen in a New York minute.