One of the themes after the 2006 and 2008 election cycles was that Republicans had become a purely regional party that could not win in the northeast. Chris Christie’s victory in the heavily Democratic New Jersey proves that this is not the case. Christie won not because he was such a stellar candidate, but because the Democratic Governor, Jon Corzine, was absolutely incompetent at his job. When you eliminate all the purely partisan voters on each side, the non-ideological voters left over who swing elections vote on the basis of competence. Republicans lost in 2006 and 2008 not because the country had moved so far to the left ideologically, but because they didn’t govern the country well. So the major lesson to take from last night as it relates to 2010 and beyond is that everything will ultimately hinge on what kind of job Democrats do running the country. The results so far do not bode well for them.