The GOP scores big wins in mid-term elections

The New York Times: "Republicans captured control of the House of Representatives on Tuesday and expanded their voice in the Senate, riding a wave of voter discontent as they dealt a setback to President Obama just two years after his triumphal victory. A Republican resurgence, propelled by deep economic worries and a forceful opposition to the Democratic agenda of health care and government spending, delivered defeats to House Democrats from the Northeast to the South and across the Midwest" (Zeleny, 11/2).

NPR: "Even after Tuesday's ballots are counted, the results remain open to interpretation, according to many analysts. NPR's Mara Liasson sees it this way: If Republicans succeed, they must decide whether the results give them a true mandate for an agenda that might include tax cuts, smaller government and a repeal of the federal health care overhaul. … Democrats still hold the White House and the Senate, but they may not be able to get much done in these highly partisan times" (Neuman and Holzman, 11/3).

The Wall Street Journal: "Among seniors, the two parties were at parity in 2006; Republicans now hold a large advantage among voters age 65 and older. Equally damaging for the Democrats, seniors—who were heavily courted by Republicans this year with ads attacking Mr. Obama's health-care overhaul—appear to represent a larger share of the electorate than four years ago" (Wallsten and Yadron, 11/3).

The Associated Press: "Flush with new power, congressional Republicans say they'll work with President Barack Obama to cut spending and create jobs — but on their terms. … The midterm elections that returned House control to the GOP after four years was a rebuke to Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, their stewardship of the struggling economy, their overhaul of the nation's health care system, and more" (Kellman, 11/3).

The New York Times, in a second story: "In leading his party to midterm triumph, Representative John A. Boehner, the next speaker of the House, is … at the beginning of the next and harder fight. ... [A]mong the first things that Mr. Boehner has said he will seek to accomplish are reversing cuts to the Medicare program and extending the expiring Bush-era tax cuts, steps that are hard to reconcile with a commitment to reining in the national debt" (Steinhauer, 11/3).

Time: "There's no doubt that voting for the Affordable Care Act made lots of Democratic incumbents vulnerable this year. Still, it's difficult to attribute losses to a single issue. Exit polls indicate jobs and the economy were far more important to voters this year. But there are clear signs that pundits who predicted high-profile losses for the Democratic Party in districts and states where health care was a major campaign issue were right" (Pickert, 11/2).