Nyuk, nyuk. It has begun.

Don't pay attention to the doom-y spin today, even from the likes of the magnificent Mark Steyn, who sees the defeat of Hoffman as a Tea Party defeat. That he came out of nowhere and blew almost to victory is an incredibly encouraging sign. They say New Jersey isn't that big a deal because of the unpopularity of the candidate but it sure was a referendum on the Democrat machine, which has to be reeling today, however privately. Sure, Hoffman is a disappointment but we can't let that stop us. Hoffman was a special race. The Republican party machine screwed up big time there.

But they're wrong about that. New Jersey was about the Democrat machine, willing to lie, cheat and steal its way to victory. It just isn't working in New Jersey anymore and NJ is a HUGE Democrat machine.

Gay marriage went down in Maine. Mike Bell won in Toledo.

For today, life is good.

In fact, the elections underscored Obama’s political weakness just one year after his triumphant victory over Republican moderate John McCain.

The Obama invincibility that was so much in evidence then seems to have lost its power. People can argue the reasons why these elections, all in places Obama carried handily, were so close. But if he were the political marvel he was thought to be, these races wouldn’t have been contests, but walkovers. So one consequence of this Election Day is the end of his special political magic.