Patrick Pendergast

You can't complain about the mass news media "manipulating" voters Tuesday night if you recognize voters just 2 years ago didn't follow the media's same type of reporting. Voters were simply in a different mood, regardless of what they were being told. #ThingsILearnedToday

Breaking Fake News: Ground broken on new Starbase campus in El Salvador. (Nation's child-support payments to expand even faster.) #ThingsILearnedToday

The recent Reflecting Pool and Ballroom tours suggest 45-47 has hit a plateau in executive actions. It's a waiting game now (for an impatient man) on developments in Iran, Ukraine, Cuba and tariff-induced investment projects. His party needs results on these (after last night).

If anybody of note had predicted a month ago that Abbott would get his ass handed to him in Texas, then everything last night would have been obvious. It makes one wonder just when the die was cast in these elections. #ThingsILearnedToday

When you tell two specific groups on Capitol Hill that you don't need them, voters just might agree with that. #ThingsILearnedToday

Government spending -- not cuts nor taxes -- is the only thing that always wins in a federal election. Last night, the tilt went decidedly left. #ThingsILearnedToday

Dow is up over 1,300 right now. Who predicted more Democratic Socialists were necessary on Wall Street? #ThingsILearnedToday

If you had a side last night, and it won, you should be having fun today. Leave any anger at the ballot box. #ThingsILearnedToday

Mea culpa time: I talked a lot of smack -- or, at least, gave A Lot of pushback -- on the Pappas-Sununu race in N.H. It. was. not. close. at. all. The Blue Wave buried a lot of individual Republicans. It appears even former Gov. Chris Sununu would have lost.

Hmm. Who knew investors on Wall Street would be so enthusiastic this morning about future government spending and regulations? #ThingsiLearnedToday

It appears all the rallies over the last year did produce a No King’s Men effect. #ThingsILearnedToday

I’m fine with throwing the bums out. I’m just concerned with the number of bums who replaced them! #ThingsiLearnedToday

In 1980, the U.S. Senate flipped when Democrats George McGovern, Birch Bayh, Frank Church, Herman Talmadge, John Culver, John Durkin, Robert Morgan, Warren Magnuson and Gaylord Nelson all lost. It always seems monumental at the time. #ThingsILearnedToday

If tonight is the consequences of better trade deals and confronting Iran, then the voters have spoken and the public can still benefit in the long run from those policies. @ThingsILearnedToday

Political 101: When you spend all your time bad-mouthing a candidate (Talarico, El-Sayed) rather than touting his opponent (Paxton, Rogers), it's not hard to guess who has the advantage. #ThingsILearnedToday

I actually like when the voters speak. Of course, what they're trying to say and meaningfully expect as a response is a little trickier. #ThingsILearnedToday

Tonight's election results did establish that major news media, national polling and betting sites have regained predictive credibility. #ThingsILearnedToday

There's a long history of when an angry electorate votes. Trying to turn that into governing policy is always the challenge, of course. (Guess we'll see how fickle the public is in another 24 months.) #ThingsILearnedToday

Republicans flipped 54 seats in Clinton's 2nd year. Didn't stop his presidency. They flipped 64 in Obama's 2nd year. Didn't stop his presidency. Dems flipped 40 in Trump's 2nd year, and, regardless of how many they flip tonight, that presidency continues. Politics is weird.

Regardless of what happens tomorrow at the ballot box (and it's obvious what the most entertaining results could be), it seems wildly improbable that one side has a 55-41 edge over the other. If that were so, little of the last 10 years would exist. #ThingsILearnedToday