Democrats have lost the three federal elections since November 4th: Georgia Senate, and the run-offs in Louisiana 2nd and 4th congressional districts. It is pretty easy to explain all of these losses in local ways:
Jim Martin trailed Saxby Chambliss on Election Day, despite a huge voter turnout effort from the Obama campaign. Lacking the same energy, the state reverted to its red-state form.
LA-02: William Jefferson is a famously corrupt member of Congress. Despite the D +28 partisan voting index, what happened in this district is similar to what happened in Tom Delay's old seat, TX-22, in 2006. It is possible for Republicans to win deep blue seats or Democrats to win deep red seats when the favored party is under a cloud of extreme corruption.
LA-04 was a narrow loss, as predicted by non-partisan polls, in a fairly red district. No big deal, really, even if disappointing.
These localized explanations are satisfactory. However, it is also safe to say that the constant talk about the need for bi-partisanship and a "team of rivals" coming from Democrats isn't exactly encouraging Democratic turnout these days.
All three of these elections, especially GA-Sen and LA-02, featured very low Democratic turnout. It probably didn't help that national Democratic leaders, including Barack Obama, are telling everyone, Democrats included, how great it is for Republicans to be included in the federal government. When one of the major parties is telling everyone that it is great when the opposing party wins, then the opposing party is probably going to win.
I'm starting to see a pretty easy path for Republicans to regain power. All they need is, first, for every Democratic leader to keep saying how great it is for Republicans to share power. Next, they need Democrats to keep making people like Robert Gates, instead of Dick Cheney or George Bush, the national face of the Republican Party. Those two messages will keep electing Republicans for years to come, and it will be entirely our own fault.
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