Not to take away from this fascinating discussion, but it looks like the Republican might actually win in the NJ Governor's race; that was the one race I was kind of hoping that the Dem would win...
I am not sure why you are so surprised.
Corzine was a deeply unpopular governor, whose state has the highest property taxes in the country and an unemployment rate exceeding national average.
And as a native to the DC metropolitan area, and having been subjected to the Virginia gubernatorial campaigning, I can say whomever ran Creigh Deeds campaign is a bafoon. It was poorly run and relied heavily on the dirty politics ("Bob McConnell wants to enslave your wife and make her wear a burqa!"), whereas McConnell ran on a platform of creating jobs. McConnell also managed to rebound from Deeds' mud slinging with some brilliantly executed ads featuring his daughter and female appointees.
After that, Deeds really brought nothing to the table.
... Republicans will use both victories to spin it as some kind of referendum on Obama, and bang pots and pans all over the cable networks in celebration, but in reality it matters little to the White House. Hell, if anything, it gives the Republicans a false sense of security heading into next year.
