One of the big stories of 2010 has been the belief that the country was ready to rebel against all incumbents in office, both in Congress and the Governorships, because of citizens’ disgust with the economic recession, and anger at government’s reaction to the crises the nation faces!
So therefore, it was supposed to be through the primary system that the “rascals” would be thrown out and replaced by “rebels” who would radically change the way the states and the national government operate!
So as we await the challenges to incumbents John McCain in Arizona and Lisa Murkowski in Alaska tomorrow, we should stop and observe how has the primary system gone so far!
The shock is that the grand total of SEVEN incumbents have been defeated in primaries, but 317 incumbents have been renominated!
So a little over TWO PERCENT of incumbents have been retired by the voters, and it is highly expected that Senators McCain and Murkowski will be renominated and likely win their contests in November, after all of the expectations that J. D. Hayworth would overcome McCain, and that Sarah Palin’s support of Joe Miller in Alaska would defeat Murkowski! But that is apparently not to be!
So all of the talk and discussion has led to little change, and it makes one wonder: Could the same thing happen with Congress and in some states in November? Could it be that the Republican Party might not gain that many seats from the Democrats? Could it be that Barack Obama will be seen as gaining an endorsement for his actions as President despite the public opinion polls?
No one can possibly know the answers now, but it certainly makes following the campaign for Congress and the Governorships more interesting, and makes one look forward to see what will happen on November 2!
It may be, as the author has indicated in other earlier entries, a very different result than many have predicted!