Hail Ceaser!

It's a bit long, but still very much worth the time.  Please take a look at University of Virginia politics professor James Ceaser's analysis of our recent election, "The 2010 Verdict". 

Among the essay's most important paragraphs is the last.  Not yet two weeks from a national election in which the Obama Administration and the congressional Democrats were "repudiated" in historic fashion, there has emerged nevertheless a contingent within the Republican Party counseling caution.  Here Ceaser:

Along with the Democrats' open campaign to persuade the public that the election did not mean what Republicans thought, there is an allied effort underway, far more subtle, to undermine and weaken the Republican position. It comes from a group of self-proclaimed wise men who present themselves as being above the fray. These voices, acting from a putative concern for the nation and even for the Republican Party, urge Republicans to avoid the mistake of Obama and the Democrats after 2008 of displaying hubris and overinterpreting their mandate. With this criticism of the Democrats offered as a testimony of their even handedness and sincerity, they piously go on to tell Republicans that now is the time to engage in bipartisanship and follow a course of compromise. The problem with this sage advice is that it calls for Republicans to practice moderation and bipartisanship after the Democrats did not. It is therefore not a counsel of moderation, but a ploy designed to force Republicans to accept the "overreach" and the policies of the past year and half. It is another way to defend "the change." If Republicans are to remain true to the verdict of 2010, they cannot accept that the message of this election was just containment; it must mean roll back.