I am not the type of person who reads too much in a single off-year election. But this certainly strikes me as being interesting. I didn’t follow the race all that closely and it is entirely possible that it became as close as it was simply because Tsongas may have been a lousy candidate and Ogonowski was an exceptionally good one. But I have to think that in a period where everything seems to be going against Republicans, the Democrats should have racked up their usual impressive margins in the district. Instead, they had to put up with an uncomfortably close margin.

Again, I am not going to make too much of this. I will, however, point out that if a week is a long time in politics, the fact that we will wait over a year before the next President and the composition of the next Congress is determined means that nothing about the next election can be taken for granted.

No matter what the polls, the pundits and the conventional wisdom says, elections are decided by voters and voters are influenced by highly unpredictable events. These remarks are made ad nauseam, but that doesn’t make them any less true. And it certainly doesn’t justify throwing in the towel well in advance of the time the votes are actually cast.