It is always interesting the day after an Election Day.  I call it the “Spin” day.  Every news channel you turned on today had someone claiming their political party did better yesterday than the other party.

Locally, I went two for three in the Mayor and Commissioners race.

E-mails filled my inbox from both Democrats and Republicans telling me their side won.  Even the head of the Montana Republican Party chimed in with an e-mail gloating about the wins in far away Virginia and New Jersey.  

Of course, most of them asked for money to help further the cause.

Republican gubernatorial candidates won in a couple states that Obama carried in 2008.  The one that I was most surprised about was New Jersey.  Virginia did not surprise me that much.

But up in New York’s 23rd Congressional District (a seat held since 1993 by a Republican) the Democrat took the special election to fill the seat.

In the 23rd District, outsiders and big names in the political world became involved in the race because they felt the person running, Dede Scozzafava, was not Republican enough.  She withdrew a few days before Election Day, and then got a big thank you from Sarah Palin.  Then Scozzafava endorsed the Democrat, Bill Owen.  Funny stuff.  Although she withdrew, her name was still on the ballot.  She ended up taking almost 7,000 votes, and the “Conservative” Doug Hoffman lost by about 4,600.

The best “spin” I read about the 23rd District race came from Sarah Palin who said, “The race for New York’s 23rd District is not over, just postponed until 2010.”

Spin it Sarah, spin it.

I have grown tired of the elite in the Republican Party or elite conservatives telling others that they can and cannot be a called or run as a Republican or a conservative.  We keep hearing of “the big tent” but that is like a joke to me when I hear someone say, “Everyone is welcome, we are the big tent party.”  The leaders seem to zip up the tent on most anyone who disagrees with any of their party principles.  That attitude will doom them to failure for years.  Plus, they have no leadership, which is a major problem.

So what did the elections on Tuesday tell us?  One thing is that it gave Obama, Pelosi, and Reid a small hint that they need to make some changes or they may lose more seats in 2010 than normally happens to the party controlling the White House.  Second, the GOP acted as though they conquered Mount Everest last night.  Frankly, after last night there are still more Governors who are Democrats; the U.S. House and Senate are controlled by Democrats and Obama is still in the White House.

Now we get to sit back and see how all this plays out in the next year.