What a Night!

Before Joe Carter's moratorium begins, a few thought on the election:

Winners and losers from last night:

Winners:

Moral values: Many voters cited moral values as the most important issue in this election, over Iraq, terrorism, and the economy. From everything I have read so far, this surprised the pollsters, who had not expected this issue to be very important to most voters. What accounts for this last minute importance of this issue in many voters minds after not even being mentioned before the election? Let's just say that I certainly believe that prayers are answered.

Conservative judges: Outside of the presidential race, by far the most important Victory is what happened in the senate last night. It appears the republicans will have a 55 to 44 majority in the senate, which means that the democrats will find it more difficult to filibuster among party lines. The Republican majority may be able to force votes on all of the judges that President Bush will appoint. There's also a very good chance, that pro-life supreme court justices will be confirmed during the next term.

Traditional marriage: Not only did the marriage amendment pass in all the states that voted on it, I believe it also had a great effect on bringing an increased conservative turnout in Ohio, which won the election for Bush. Even if a case questioning the constitutionality of same sex marriage goes before the present Supreme Court, the fact that so many state constitutions do not recognize them will undoubtedly have an impact.

The blogosphere: The effect of the blogs in this election was incredible. The role of blogs in reporting the bias in the mainstream media, as well as the specific role in the Ra^thergate and Bombgate scandals, helped swing this election. I do believe that the next revolution will be posted.

In the same vein, I agree with Powerline that Hugh Hewitt deserves a tremendous amount of credit. He has built a network of influence without sacrificing his Evangelical Christian faith. While others were running around panicked, he remained the voice of calm and reason throughout this entire process.

Losers:

Exit polls, and those who trusted them. Why didn't we learn a lesson from 2000? For the second time, we almost let false polls unfairly influence an important election.

North eastern liberal Democrats: after losing the senate and house elections in 2002, the democratic party decided to take a strong turn to the left. The results were disastrous. Consider this: the republican party has had a majority in both the house and the senate since 1994 (except for the short-term stunt by Jim Jeffords). The only Democrat that was elected president in the last 25 years did so by attempting to mimic a Republican. It will be very interesting to see where the Democratic party goes from here.The politics of hate have never been effective, and I'm glad that Americans saw thought that attempt this year.

Update: I corrected the error in that the increased Republican presence in the Senate will not be able to overrule a Democratic override, but will make one more difficult.