Election results from yesterday point to an interesting trend:  Republicans can be successful when they choose moderation over the radical right. 

The two big Republican wins, the governor races in Virginia and New Jersey, were the result of the candidates focusing on the economy and staying away from divisive social issues like gays in the military and abortion.  In the closely watched congressional election in upstate New York a little known Republican accountant received national attention from the backing of Limbaugh and Palin when he aggressively pushed for an anti-abortion, anti-gay social agenda.  These views may have helped him defeat a moderate Republican for the nomination, but it assured a victory for his Democratic opponent.  In fact, the moderate Republican who was defeated by the Limbaugh-Palin backed conservative surprised everyone by actually coming out and supporting the Democratic candidate!!!!

While I personally would like to see President Obama aggressively pursue a more progessive political agenda, he may be following the politifcally necessary strategy of starting out more moderate.  Franklin Roosevelt followed such a strategy and it wored pretty well. 

Meanwhile it's fun to watch social Neanderthals in the Republican Party continue to hook on to the Limbaugh-Palin bandwagon and drive themselves to defeat.  Economically American s are still moderate to conservative.  But socially we are growing up.