Five Concerns for Each Party Post-2010

Fourth, Republicans may have run out of room on the electoral map. There are a dozen or less (depending on the final tallies) Democratic incumbents left that represent districts won by Republicans in the last presidential election (there were just under 50 before last Tuesday). These are normally fertile political hunting grounds. But 2010 considerably thinned the herd.

Finally, no one knows what the Republican presidential primary will produce. The GOP might nominate more candidates like Christine O’Donnell that stand for conservative principles, but lack electoral crossover appeal. Some in the GOP would rather lose and stay 100 percent true to a particular issue agenda. If that mindset prevails, Nancy Pelosi will take back the speaker’s gavel and join Barack Obama at a reelection party in 2012.