Democrats Can Win in November

How Tuesday's election results should encourage them.

By Eliot Spitzer
Posted Friday, May 21, 2010, at 8:26 AM ET

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The instant analysis of Tuesday's election results was hyperbolic: Incumbents are dead! The establishment is finished! The fringes have overtaken the middle! But the portents of doom are, as usual, overblown. A closer look at the results should give substantial comfort to a White House whose mantras are still "Change," "Hope," and "Yes We Can."

First, the obvious: A public that has experienced multi-decade middle-class stagnation is ready to give new voices and ideas a chance, and that means great danger for incumbents. If the "new normal" is anything close to the last decade, we are in deep trouble: median income stagnant; job creation flat; family debt rising; income inequality increasing. More is being demanded by the public than a return to the grim economic realities of pre-recession 2007.