Democrat Wins House Election, World Ignores It

A big test of the GOP theories that "If the elections were held today, the Democrats would lose scores of seats in the House" and "Repealing Obamacare is a winning hand" both failed miserably last night, and nobody noticed.

Democrat Ted Deutch won a special election Tuesday for a Florida congressional seat in the nation's first federal election since the passage of the Democrats' health care plan.

Deutch held a sizable lead over Republican Ed Lynch late Tuesday night in the Palm Beach-area 19th District, prompting Lynch to concede.

Deutch had 62 percent of the vote compared to Lynch's 36 percent with 97 percent of the precincts counted, CNN affiliate WFOR reported. The election was to fill the seat of Democrat Robert Wexler, who resigned at the beginning of the year to head up the Center for Middle East Peace.

So, if the pundits were correct, Deutch should have lost.  And if he won, it should have been only by a few percentage points.  "No safe seats for the Dems in 2010!"   Instead he won by 26 points.

Ed Lynch should have won, according to everything the right has been telling us.  It was a special election, which should have favored the Republicans in a smaller, non-presidential contest.  Florida's a battleground state.  Deutsch supported Obamacare.  Lynch vowed to repeal it.  Indeed, this should have been a shocking upset if you believe the rhetoric on the right that the Dems are completely doomed.

The Silent majority spoke alright.  They told the Republican to go screw himself.  I thought Scott Brown's win was an absolute assurance that a huge Tea Party wave was coming to annihilate the Democrats forever?  I thought Obamacare was so hated that Dems everywhere would be crushed?  I thought that repealing the law was this year's golden ticket?

Turns out America still hates the Republicans more.  Go figure.  Steve Benen has more.