TENNESSEE RESISTS OBAMA WAVE: “Republicans routed Tennessee with a moderate, bipartisan style that could offer a path to recovery for the national party. Using a ‘Take the Hill’ campaign to win the legislature, they largely avoided hammering such issues as abortion and immigration in favor of campaigning on lower taxes, among other economic issues, to appeal to independents, who make up 30% of the state’s electorate.”

(Via Dan Cleary).

UPDATE: Reader John O’Sullivan writes:

I can assure both you and the WSJ that the GOP in other states was not exactly beating the drum on the abortion and immigration topics, to put it mildly. And the McCain ticker was running to Obama’s left on immigration.

Of course, the WSJ is simply seeing what it wishes to see. That’s a bad trait for a news organization to have, whether it be the WSJ or NYT.

I think that in Tennessee, the Democrats have done for their reputation what the Congressional Republicans have done.