David Horowitz offers the following analysis:
The elections were a victory for the political center; a vote against an incompetently run war; and an opportunistic spending orgy; and the corruption of a party grown complacent in power. Twenty-percent of the self-described conservatives who voted in the mid-term elections voted for Democrats. Forty-seven percent of the voters over all were moderates. (Hat tip to David Brooks)
James Webb who won a Democratic Senate seat in Virginia is a stand-up military veteran, a conservative who became disaffected with the way the war has been fought in Iraq. He will not be a comfort to the Ned Lamont-Cindy Sheehan crowd on the party’s leftwing.
For America this can be a healthy result if it means a coming together on the war against the Islamic jihad. Patriotic Democrats who are critics of the war but defenders of their country will have to differentiate themselves from their anti-American left by shouldering the responsibilities of defense as a governing party.
But will this happen? That remains to be seen.
Update: 11/13/06 - For other analyses, see Charles Krauthammer, Alicia Colon, and Tony Perkins.