As far as I can tell, the conventional wisdom about yesterday's election in Virginia is that it represents a "shot across the bow" from independent voters worried about heavy spending and deficits. The election wasn't a referendum on President Obama's performance, but it was a sign that independents are increasingly uneasy with the liberal direction the country is taking.
This is complete bunk. For starters, self-described "independent" voters are often anything but; when pressed by pollsters, most independents will admit to leaning in one direction or another. In Virginia, it seems that most independents lean to the right - a poll from this summer suggests that the vast majority of independents identify as either moderate or conservative. If you were to ask independents who voted in yesterday's election whether or not they supported John McCain in last year's election, I'm fairly confident that a solid majority would say that they did. In fact, if you were to ask yesterday's voters whether they supported John McCain, a majority would say yes - 51 percent, to be precise.
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