Some Election Reactions

Here's a roundup of some observations and reactions to Tuesday's elections from the blogosphere.

Greg Mankiw:

Yesterday, as the market was processing all the political news, the stock market was up slightly (+0.2%), but pharmaceutical companies took a hit.

My interpretation: The Dems will likely give us lower drug prices and less research into new drugs. Good news if you plan to be sick soon. Bad news if you plan to be sick in the more distant future.

Mankiw also notes:

Over a Slate, a troubling essay by Jacob Weisberg. An excerpt:

Many of the Democrats who recaptured seats held by Republicans have been described as moderates or social conservatives, who will be out of synch with Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi. The better term, with props to Fareed Zakaria, is probably illiberal Democrats. Most of those who reclaimed Republican seats ran hard against free trade, globalization, and any sort of moderate immigration policy. That these Democrats won makes it likely that others will take up their reactionary call. Some of the newcomers may even be foolish enough to try to govern on the basis of their misguided theory.

Pat Buchanan expresses a similar theme, although more approvingly.

A happy Ezra Klein:

In all three states where TABOR-style spending caps [Taxpayer Bill of Rights] were placed on the ballot, they were defeated...voters in recent years have repealed TABORs across the country, notably in Colorado, where the first one was enacted in 1992. Yesterday, the three new attempts to institute the rules were flatly rejected.

(Hattip Marginal Revolution)

Todd Zywicki:

Did anyone else notice that the Libertarian Party in Montana (Stan Jones, who received 3%) provided far more than the margin of victory between Tester and Burns?

Instapundit:

Dave Kopel notices that it wasn't a bad election for gun rights, either. And ten states passed anti-Kelo property rights initiatives.

And Jane Galt offers some sobering commentary:

A lot of libertarians, including me, got what we wanted this morning: a Democratic Congress.

I've got a baaaaaaad feeling that we're going to be suffering buyer's remorse by spring . . .

Update: Already starting . . . .

It will be interesting to see how the political landscape shifts now and what impact this will have on both parties going into the next Presidential election.