In a political environment filled with recounts, lost votes, and uncertainty, Election Day 2009 came and went yesterday like another Saw flick released just in time for Halloween.  Of course voter turnout will not be as high as last year, one of the biggest voter turnouts since the glory days of the political machine.  But it did surprise quite a few counties across quite a few states.  You can’t go to a political website right now and not read a headline titled something like, “2009: The GOP Strikes Back“, Star Wars reference aside I mean.  Republicans won cozy new governor seats in both Virginia and New Jersey last night, which some pundits are saying spells out the trouble Democratic congress members are in for 2010.  Meanwhile, in New York state near the Canadian border – the smell of stale hockey pads and mediocrity wafted into the air… NO, uhh, I mean… the Dems had something to cheer for in a House seat victory in NY state’s 23rd District.  In that race, the GOP challenger to Democrat Bill Owens was called “too moderate” and taken on by Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman which drew tons of national attention.  Hoffman was endorsed by heavy conservative hitters, like Sarah Palin, for taking an extremely far-right position, further right of the Republican choice anyway.  There’s a lesson to be learned here for the GOP if they want to make a splash in 2010 and 2012:  moderation wins elections, not bat-sh*t crazy extremism (besides maybe Texas and Florida).  The new governors of Virginia and Jersey won on that principle, granted, in states that constantly shift from left to right.  Or maybe the lesson is: anything Sarah Palin touches dies within months.  The biggest news yesterday for us here at Watch-Ur Mouth, though, has to be the Maine vote to repeal a law allowing same-sex marriages.  Maine would have became the sixth state (Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Connecticut) to legalize gay marriage.  If only Sarah Palin endorsed the repeal…

-D