They've understimated intelligence (and morality) among the public, too, in general. To what extent they are so extremist they are either out of touch or don't care, that's the real question they've presented us with this year in Washington.

The better question is what happens when blacks and Hispanics are the majority and no longer need to go along with the rich white boys who currently run the Democratic Party.

As it happens, the second letter of the alphabet actually is one of my initials, but not the last one.

Back to the thread… Yes it would be a huge loss to Democrats if they lost NJ and VA. I wonder how much it is really a gain for Republicans, or if it's just independents and Dems not caring to vote because they don't like either governor potential.

And btw, my initials are not KKB.

First, I am not a Republican. Second, until someone can come up with a model where not whites will vote for any conservative party, it is reasonable to believe that the Republicans cannot compete in any district or state that has too many non-whites.

WIth the Dems and Republicans battling it out in these scary times, and with people not knowing what to believe, it's the fear the Republicans generate that people relate to.

The Democrats have to do a much better job at pushing back against the outright lies and negativity of the Republicans. And they must highlight their own accomplishments.

For what it's worth I don't like Corzine. But I certainly don't like Christie, especially because of his awarding of no-bid contracts to friends, and the use of his position to tarnish candidates (Menendez comes to mind) who he doesn't like. Christie, in many ways, seems like another incarnation of Bush.

With New Jersey, I'll believe it after election day. New Jersey voters to Republicans are like Lucy with the football to Charlie Brown. They pretend to be willing to election a Republican but then on election day they always go back.

Admittedly Corzine has done a wonderful job at stretching this theory to the limit, being so mind bogglingly corrupt and incompetent, but don't count him out yet.

But democrats really failed to make the stimulus/bailout prelude seem pleasant or useful for the voters. This is partially because they failed to see that republicans don't want to make things better as long as they are in the minority, and partially because things went too quickly and they don't do marketing that well.

If you ask me the independents seem like a bunch of whiners, but whiners deserve their votes too and will use them, so democrats will have to do some marketing. Republicans are short-sighedly selfish, but with an election every other year that might work.