THREE MARTINI LUNCH: NOVEMBER 12, 2014

National Review's Andrew Johnson joins host Greg Corombos. Today's topics: Republicans pick up another Senate seat in Alaska, polls show America wants the GOP in charge of Congress, Senate Dems may pass Keystone approval to save Mary Landrieu and Dems grapple with the Clintons' travel bills.



Gallup: Majority wants GOP to set the agenda for next two years

Democrats have spent the past week attempting to put the best possible spin on the midterm elections they can find. Voters say they want us to work together, said both Harry Reid and Barack Obama, even though voters kicked Democrats out of office while leaving Republican incumbents firmly in place — even in Kansas, where Democrats thought they had pulled the wool over voters' eyes with a transparently shabby bait-and-switch after the primary. Lowest turnout in decades, others argued, telling anyone who'd listen that Republicans had no mandate despite rolling to their largest Congressional win in decades, if not a century.

A Gallup poll conducted after the election produced something that looks rather dramatically like a mandate, though.

Note that this poll was taken from November 6-9, starting the day after the spin began. Obama gave a televised speech on November 5th in which he argued that the election had nothing to do with him, and that he was listening to the two-thirds of voters who weren't interested enough to turn out. That argument appears to have fallen flat with the electorate, even the two-thirds to whom Obama has pitched his ears.

This shows that the midterms were clearly a referendum on Obama and his leadership. Only 36% want the President to steer the policy agenda, which actually is lower than Gallup's approval rating for Obama, 39/56, in almost the same polling period. That number has to be close to what an Obama polling floor would be, which means that Obama has lost all but the most loyal of his followers.

Even among Democrats, though, the polling doesn't look good for Obama. Overall, almost twice as many say the country will be better off with the GOP in full charge of Congress (34%) than worse (19%), although a plurality say it won't make any difference (44%). That is almost identical to the number of Democrats who say losing Congress won't make a difference (43%), and 12% of them think the country will be better off with GOP leadership on Capitol Hill. Ouch!

Also read:

Voters reject Democrats, NY Times says voters rejected 'gridlock'

NBC's Today Ignores GOP Winning 53rd Senate Seat, Discusses World's Largest Corn Maze Instead