A Referendum?

NBC's Todd, on whether these elections are referendums on Pres. Obama: "Nobody ran against Obama this campaign. There's a lot of talk of 'Is this a referendum or not? Did he have enough coat tails?' I think those are real questions. Bob McDonnell did not run against Barack Obama. Chris Christie did not run against Barack Obama" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 11/3).

Ex-WH dep. CoS Karl Rove, on whether Dems are correct that this is not a referendum on Obama: "No, especially since there are prominent Democrats who said just the opposite. President Bill Clinton said this was going to be a referendum on President Obama and his policies, and for once I agree with Bill Clinton, and it is" ("Hannity," FNC, 11/3).

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, on health care reform's role in the VA GOV race: "It clearly hurt the Democrats. It clearly is hurting around the country, but I think most especially in Virginia, where you would not have expected it to rank so high in terms of concerns. It feeds into the idea of a Democratic administration over-reading the mandate in '08 and deciding it's going to remake America as a result of a mandate it never had" ("O'Reilly Factor," FNC, 11/3).

MSNBC's Matthews: "If we see a Democrat lose the governorship of New Jersey, it will be counted against him [Obama] but I think there are other forces at work. I think there's a tremendous pushback, that's the new term in American life, against big piggish money in American politics. ... If Corzine goes down tonight, and Bloomberg has to fight for his life, that tells you the people have had it" (MSNBC, 11/3).