Red Wave Peters Out

 I remember from my early days body surfing at Santa Monica waiting in the perfect wave, spotting one building beyond the breakers, getting all enthusiastic with anticipation, only for the wave to run into destructive interference from other waves, and arriving a diminished fraction of what I was hoping for. That's what happened with the election last night. Oh, it looks like the GOP will take the House of Representative by a few seats, presumably sending Nancy Pelosi into retirement as the ambassador to the Italy, or some other sinecure, which is a good thing. But control of the Senate appears likely to depend on the outcome of a runoff in Georgia between Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock. Haven't we seen that before? It appears the last minute promising polls for such GOP hopefuls as Dr. Oz, Blake Masters, Lee Zeldin and Kari Lake will prove unfounded. Does this mean the major polling outfits have finally solved their GOP problem, their tendency to understate support for GOP candidates by 3-5%? Anyway, let's go to Stacy McCain: MIDTERM ELECTION RESULTS HQ: ‘Not a Red Wave, That’s For Darn Sure’

UPDATE 6:30 a.m. ET Wednesday: The headline quote is from South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham, summarizing the results in which it appears that a runoff in Georgia will decide control of the Senate, while GOP gains in the House will probably be enough to take a majority, but by a disappointingly narrow margin.

UPDATE 6:55 a.m. ET: A bright spot in western Maryland:

Neil Parrott (R) ……. 102,669 (51%)
David Trone (D) …….. 98,122 (49%)

Parrott is the state senator from Washington County whom I knew from 2010, when he was first running for the state legislature. His narrow victory over Trone, a billionaire incumbent Democrat, demonstrates the power of a strong grassroots “shoe leather” campaign. There was no way Parrott could compete in television ads, where Trone vastly outspent him, but the Republican challenger had plenty of volunteers on the ground and his green yard signs were everywhere.

As Althouse happily points out, Last night's biggest loser: Trump.

That's my hypothesis, glancing through the news reports in the middle of the night. I'll highlight evidence — beginning with this:

Tonight, the GOP GOVERNOR Candidates Who Refused To Say If They'd Have Certified Biden's 2020 Win In Their States:

❔Kari Lake, Arizona
❌ Tim Michels, Wisconsin
❌ Tudor Dixon, Michigan
❌ Doug Mastriano, PA
❌ Darren Bailey, Illinois
❌ Dan Cox, Maryland
❌ Lee Zeldin, NY

— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) November 9, 2022

And with that, I'm going to knock off and do other things this morning.