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People keep trying to guess what the "message" is for such an outcome.
The non-sensationalistic, but actually more accurate, response is that as always it is not about message, or ideology, or change. It is about high unemployment. Incumbents do poorly when unemployment is high, and yesterday was no different.
I would also be skeptical of trying to find any grand messages for 2012. In actual votes, it was republicans 51 democrats 46 in the house. Similarly, the idea that the result is a clear mandate for reduced government is absolute bullshit. Besides the economy, one of the reasons many democrats lost yesterday was because democrats did worse among senior citizens, and they voted in larger numbers in large part because they want to prevent the cuts to medicare that the health care reform contains.
In the end, 2012 will have a lot less to do with "messages," etc. and, as usual, a lot more to do with the economy. The number of actual swing votes, no matter what, is actually very small and very driven by economic conditions.
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