Hillarysworld

There are many intereting perspectives in this article..  What's next for Pelosi and Democrats in Congress? The following really rang true.

SCOTT KEETER

Director of survey research at the Pew Research Center

The electorate rendered a harsh judgment on the Democratic Party's stewardship of the economy last Tuesday. As a consequence, a greatly weakened Democratic Party's legislative goals will largely be defensive for the next two years. Though polls this year have found a public preference for smaller government, Democrats in Congress may benefit from the mixed message the public sent with regard to specific policies. In fact, the Democrats have plurality or majority public support for defending many key policies Republicans will try to change.

Even among the strongly conservative electorate that voted this year, fewer than half in the national exit poll (48 percent) favored repealing the health-care law, and just 39 percent supported extending the Bush-era tax cuts for all income groups. Although the GOP has proposed slashing domestic program spending by $100 billion, a recent Pew Research poll found a 48 percent plurality opposing even a freeze on domestic spending. And the deficit, while a key issue for Republicans, was the top priority for only 37 percent of voters in the exit poll.

This suggests that, for all the talk about compromise in Washington, Democrats and Republicans alike may feel like there's little incentive to compromise. This sentiment is likely to be strengthened by the fact that more than half of the conservative and moderate Blue Dog Democrats in the House were defeated.

-- Edited by Sanders on Sunday 7th of November 2010 11:19:07 PM