Smidiríní: Election Edition

I may have more to say about these elections after the dust settles in a couple of days.  I want to sit back and do some thinking before I put those thoughts out to you.  When I do talk about this it will only be about the elections in relation to the economy and the markets.  In the meantime here's a sampling from around the web of what others are saying.

Oh and one final thought.  My state of Illinois is often called a deeply blue Democratic state.  That's not correct.  Chicago and its immediate environs may be that way but the rest of the state is as red as the rest of the Midwest.  How Red?  Well on Tuesday Illinois elected a pro growth businessman named Bruce Rauner.  He won every county but Cook.  If Cook county was excluded from the state then Rauner won in a landslide.  With Cook in the equation he merely won by 5 percent.  Remember also this is the President's home state.

The Wall Street Journal:  Why the Democrats Lost.  "For decades after World War II, the U.S. economy had an annual average growth rate of 3.3%. Here are the growth rates for each year of the Obama presidency (World Bank data):  2009: -2.8%; 2010: 2.5%; 2011: 1.8%; 2012: 2.8%; 2013: 1.9%You preside over that performance, you lose. The 2014 growth uptick arrived too late to save the Democrats. The economy was a spent political force for them."

Vox:  Nine Takeaways From the 2014 Election. 

New Republic.com:  Democrats Had a Winning Message in 2014-And Promptly Forgot It.

Washington Examiner:  28 Senators Who Voted For Obamacare, Who Won't Be Part of the Senate.

Washington Post:  Democrats' 2014 Defeate is Worse Than it Was in 2014.

Finally just looking at the raw data derived over at Politico.com shows how bad a night it was in Illinois for Governor Pat Quinn.  Quinn lost  the popular vote in the state to Governor-elect Bruce Rauner roughly 51-46%.  Quinn lost every county in the state but Cook-which is in essence Chicago. If you strip out the votes in Cook County then Rauner beat Quinn by my analysis 61-35%.  Take away 3rd party candidates and Rauner garnered nearly 65% of the vote.  Remember that the next time you hear some pundit call Illinois the deepest of blue {i.e. Democratic party states}.  Outside of the Chicago area and a few enclaves, Illinois looks a lot like the rest of the Midwest.

.....& Finally....Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood at last night's CMA awards figure out the real reason the Democrats lost!