Andrew Cuomo defeated challenger Carl Palidino for the New York Governorship.

Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Christine O’Donnell essentially handed Democrat Chris Coons the Delaware seat.

Democrat Richard Blumenthal defeated WWE entrepreneur Linda McMahon to win the Connecticut Senate seat in what became the most expensive race in the country.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, surprisingly, held on to his Nevada Senate seat.

Rand Paul, son of Ron Paul, won the Kentucky Senate seat.

Nikki Haley, has become South Carolina’s first female and first Indian-American governor with endorsements from Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin.

Obama’s vacant Senate seat went to the GOP candidate Mark Kirk.

House Minority Leader John Boehner is the predicted Speaker of the House for the 112th Congress.

West Virginia was carried by Democrats as Governor Joe Manchin won the Senate seat left open by Democrat Robert C. Byrd who died in office.

Barbara Boxer held on to her Senate seat extending her decades of public service.

Arguably, the Tea Party helped the Democrats. Pundits have said that their burgeoning presence in the elections split the conservative vote. If those seats had gone to the GOP then the Senate would most likely be in control of the Republicans.

The big swing back to the right is mostly the result of disenchanted independents. Media reports say conservatives and independents are “fed up with the gridlock” in Washington, however a conservative house and liberal senate equate to a legislative brick wall. The next two years of the Obama administration will be expectedly impotent presenting bills attempting to blur party lines to deliver on campaign promises but will be expectedly stalled or shot down by the conservative House. Similarly, the conservative House will have a hard time infusing its agenda past the liberal Senate.

Tea Party congressmen/women are promising to introduce a bill everyday to repeal the historic Health Care bill passed by President Obama. Meanwhile, Republican top brass is putting on airs of victory claiming that this is a message from America to President Obama that they want… change? Democrats are ululating that they survived one of the best onslaughts the Republicans and the Tea Party could muster and still retained power in the Senate. President Obama is taking the elections in stride and moving forward with day-to-day business. And now that midterm elections are done, so can the rest of us.

Source: GOP roars back to take U.S. House; Democrats cling to Senate majority

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters’ 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. In some other cases, she has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls. Alaska law does not specifically address expenses for a governor’s children. The law allows for payment of expenses for anyone conducting official state business.

As governor, Palin justified having the state pay for the travel of her daughters — Bristol, 17; Willow, 14; and Piper, 7 — by noting on travel forms that the girls had been invited to attend or participate in events on the governor’s schedule. But some organizers of these events said they were surprised when the Palin children showed up uninvited, or said they agreed to a request by the governor to allow the children to attend.

Several other organizers said the children merely accompanied their mother and did not participate. The trips enabled Palin, whose main state office is in the capital of Juneau, to spend more time with her children. “She said any event she can take her kids to is an event she tries to attend,” said Jennifer McCarthy, who helped organize the June 2007 Family Day Celebration picnic in Ketchikan that Piper attended with her parents.

State Finance Director Kim Garnero told The Associated Press she has not reviewed the Palins’ travel expense forms, so she could not say whether the daughters’ travel with their mother would meet the definition of official business. After Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain chose Palin his running mate and reporters asked for the records, Palin ordered changes to previously filed expense reports for her daughters’ travel.

In the amended reports, Palin added phrases such as “First Family attending” and “First Family invited” to explain the girls’ attendance.”The governor said, ‘I want the purpose and the reason for this travel to be clear,’” said Linda Perez, state director of administrative services.

When Palin released her family’s tax records as part of her vice presidential campaign, some tax experts questioned why she did not report the children’s state travel reimbursements as income. The Palins released a review by a Washington attorney who said state law allows the children’s travel expenses to be reimbursed and not taxed when they conduct official state business.

AP INVESTIGATION: Alaska funded Palin kids’ travel – Yahoo! News.

No doubt a lot of attention has been on Sarah Palin, potentially the first-ever female vice president, but in recent weeks, the Alaskan Governor has had her share of goof ups that make the GOP look really bad. You have to wonder if they thought, “This will work as long as she doesn’t talk”. Unfortunately for them, the American people (the smart and not-so-smart ones alike) are demanding more from their candidates and the GOP has found it hard to keep Palin from speaking.

In her first interview….ever (ok, lemme stop), the Alaskan governor met w/ Charlie Gibson and clearly wasn’t prepared to answer questions that weren’t really all that hard…to answer. Not to answer correctly, or popularly, but to just answer. When asked what the Bush Doctrine was, Palin ever-so ungracefully tried to get Gibson to tell her what that was. When asked if the Ukraine and Georgia should join the UN and be attacked by Russia should we attack or go to war w/ Russia, Palin responded by saying we shouldn’t “second-guess” the decision to attack….Russia.

The GOP immediately realized they had a problem on their hands and booked Palin on two more “safe” interviews with Sean Hannity and another with Katie Couric. Of course we all know the Hannity interview was GOP friendly but what they didn’t expect was for Couric to stump this woman. Among major gaffes, like Palin being unable to cite any examples of McCain’s actions to push for more oversight in his tenure in the Senate, this happened..seriously:

COURIC: You’ve cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land– boundary that we have with– Canada. It– it’s funny that a comment like that was– kind of made to– cari– I don’t know, you know? Reporters–

COURIC: Mocked?

PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that’s the word, yeah.

COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.

PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our– our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They’re in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia–

COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We– we do– it’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is– from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to– to our state.

I have a cat. I played with dogs before, and I’ve watched a space shuttle fly into orbit. According to Palin’s train of thought, not only am I a veterinarian but I’m an astronaut too.

I’m gonna need you to study at least a LITTLE bit for a test. I don’t blame the GOP at all for keeping her mouth shut. Smile and look pretty, because as soon as you open your mouth….FAIL.

To see the whole interview: Click here

Oops. Sorry, that wasn’t it. I must have gotten them confused. Here is the actual interview.

I listened to Anderson Cooper and other analysts debate the reason why the McCain camp, previously planning to release the name at that time immediately after Obama’s speech, decided to wait the day after. It makes sense; it would have been too obvious. The “Oh yeah? Ya’ll think you’re historic and breaking barriers. Take that!” sort of touché would have been all too transparent.

That is not to say that Governor Palin is not a credible VP nominee nor is it to say that her service to her state of Alaska and this country is not without commendation. I actually know nothing about the Governor, and will spend the rest of the day googling the hell out of her. I would just like to point out the obvious. The Republicans may justify their “non-racist, non-sexist, non-discriminatory” image is a thing of the past with examples like Colonel Powell and Govenor Schwarzenerggar (sp?). But who would ever think that they would actually place a woman in the second most powerful position in the “world”, and NOT wrinkle their brow or suck their teeth thinking “sure. . .”.. A woman? And from Alaska?!! Call me skeptical, but there are secondary intentions.

I am glad to see that the Republicans are scared. It may not be a trembling urinary incontinent fear, more like a cocky visage with a single bead of sweat running down the side of the face, but fear nonetheless. Question: Would they have picked a woman if Clinton was the VP nominee? It seems as ‘dem Republicans were dusting off their cans of haterade stored 8 years ago and adding new fuel to the fire, ready to blast Clinton into obscurity. “Clinton hate” is still palpable in this country. Maybe not obvious to you, but just take a good look at your neighbor across the street, or the guy standing next to you in line for coffee, or your boss. Had she been the VP candidate, less drastic measures would have been needed, I think.

But is this a drastic measure? Maybe we are approaching the threshold of that “dream” MLK slumbered upon. We are no longer on that long journey, maybe we have arrived as a nation and what remains left are renovations and touch-ups to the house finally built on a strong foundation. Or maybe it is all an illusion? Just as tropical storms this week approach the Gulf Coast once again, the strength of this supposed American foundation will be tested by nature’s unrelenting force. What stands after this week along the Gulf Coast and what stands after November remains questionable.

Figure out who Governor Palin is. Figure out where you stand on the issues. Watch the debates. Educate yourself and others.