A Bolt from the Blue
After pretty much a clean sweep win for Dems and a rebuke of Trump at the polls on Tuesday night, Americans are left with one nagging question: You want fries with that? Why that question? Because this was in many ways the McDonald’s election. At about the same time we got election results, we were getting the latest earnings from Mickey D’s. While the earnings were pretty good, the Golden Arches are being somewhat flattened by our bifurcated economy. “The chain can’t do much about the larger economic trends that see high-income U.S. consumers spending freely, while households earning $50,000 or less are forced to pull back on the occasional McDouble. In this sense, earnings reports from the Golden Arches capture a new normal — a world in which even a snack wrap may be a kind of luxury good.” Both McDonald’s earnings and the 2025 elections were in large part about one issue: Affordability. There were other factors as well. If affordability represented the two all-beef patties of election 2025, then freedom and democracy made up the special sauce, strong (and very different) candidates were the lettuce, cheese, pickles (I’ll let you decided who’s who), and the government shutdown was embodied by the onions (that have been left out for 37 days). Sandwiching all those factors was the ubiquitous, puffed up, slightly stale sesame seed bun: the Hamburglar himself. Trump, by his own design, is everywhere and everything in American politics, so everything that happened everywhere on Tuesday was about him. It’s a safe bet that Ketchup was thrown. Yes, this was just one off year election. And there are still plenty of warning signs when it comes to midterms and a lot of damage that can be done between now and then. But we can talk about that later. You deserve a break today.
+ Josh Marshall: “The clearest read of what happened last night is that, as far as I can tell, Democrats won every race that was in meaningful contention anywhere in the country. That’s not just high-profile races in New York, New Jersey and Virginia or the redistricting proposition in California. It goes way down into races only obsessives or local observers were watching in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Mississippi and a bunch of other places. Democrats won everywhere, and just about everywhere they won by larger margins than even optimists were expecting.” A Few Day After the Election Thoughts. Josh gets it right on the supposed civil war among the Mamdani progressives and Spanberger moderates: “That doesn’t seem quite right to me. They have a pretty good model: find candidates suited to their constituencies and focus on cost of living issues and opposition to Donald Trump’s autocracy. Full stop.”
+ “Off-year elections are never quite the crystal ball for midterms that political junkies want, but one thing that last night’s results seem to convey clearly is that many voters are unhappy with President Donald Trump.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Anti-MAGA Majority Reemerges.
+ “So what’s behind Democrats’ big win? Well, surely lots of factors — but, to pick one, it’s affordability.” Dig into the numbers with G. Elliot Morris: Seven data-driven lessons from the 2025 elections.
+ “Analysts in both parties have wondered for months whether the public dissatisfaction with Democrats that is evident in poll after poll might offset the mounting doubts about Trump’s performance. On Tuesday, the answer was clear.” Ron Brownstein in Bloomberg (Gift Article): Election Day Sent an Unmistakable Warning to Republicans.
+ The most coverage of the night, predictably, went to the NYC mayoral race. NYT (Gift Article): How Zohran Mamdani Beat Back New York’s Elite and Was Elected Mayor.
+ Democrats set historic records on election night. Here are six of the firsts they accomplished.
+ Democrats’ 2025 election wins go beyond big races to places like Georgia, Pennsylvania.
This is Bear Territory
From New Jersey to New York to Virginia, there were a lot of big winners last night. I wonder if, a few years from now, we’ll look back and realize that Gavin Newsom was the biggest winner of all. He took a major risk putting Prop 50 on the ballot and was able to draw a massive turnout to drive the redistricting proposal to a landslide victory. “At a time when Democrats have been searching for a win against President Trump, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California gave them one. California voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly supported Proposition 50, Mr. Newsom’s measure to create more Democratic congressional seats, countering a similar redistricting effort pushed by Mr. Trump in other states to protect Republican control of the House next year. The result has sharply lifted Mr. Newsom’s political profile at a moment when he is considering running for president. And it has provided what many Democrats praised as a road map on how to fight for a party that remains adrift one year after Mr. Trump captured the White House.” NYT (Gift Article): A Big Win in California Propels Newsom.
+ Newsom’s victory tone was particularly sober. “And tonight, after poking the bear, this bear roared with an unprecedented turnout in a special election with an extraordinary result. None of us, however, are naive. This is a pattern. This is a practice. Donald Trump’s efforts to rig the midterm election continue to this day.” Gavin Newsom addresses Prop 50 victory. (It’s a safe bet that after these election results, the Trump effort to uneven the playing field will accelerate.)
+ Meanwhile, Republicans file lawsuit challenging California’s redistricting measure.
Tariff Not Now, When?
“A majority of Supreme Court justices on Wednesday asked skeptical questions about President Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose tariffs on imports from nearly every U.S. trading partner, casting doubt on a centerpiece of the administration’s second-term agenda.” At the SCOTUS hearings, Justices Cast a Skeptical Eye on Trump’s Tariffs. (If SCOTUS doesn’t greenlight Trump’s tariff power, he may have to fire them.)
A Copper Whopper
“Burger King is struggling with change. Specifically, pennies. On a recent call, Burger King’s technology specialists quickly moved on from cybersecurity and digital kiosks to a more pressing problem: what the chain would do when it ran out of the one-cent coins.” WSJ (Gift Article): Burger King Braces for the Demise of the Penny.
Extra, Extra
The Bucks Stop Here: “The experience, historically, is that government shutdowns don’t cause calamity. This time could be different.” Longest Shutdown in History Costs US Economy About $15 Billion Each Week. (How will last night’s results impact the shutdown negotiations?)
+ And AI for and AI: “Enoch, one of the newer chatbots powered by artificial intelligence, promises ‘to ‘mind wipe’ the pro-pharma bias’ from its answers. Another, Arya, produces content based on instructions that tell it to be an ‘unapologetic right-wing nationalist Christian A.I. model.’ Grok, the chatbot-cum-fact-checker embedded in X, claimed in one recent post that it pursued ‘maximum truth-seeking and helpfulness, without the twisted priorities or hidden agendas plaguing others.'” You think the old internet had bias? Just wait until the new one takes over. NYT (Gift Article): Right-Wing Chatbots Turbocharge America’s Political and Cultural Wars. (They’re not already turbocharged?)
+ Me, Myself and AI: “Although chatbots may be built on the familiar architecture of engagement, they enable something new: They allow you to talk forever to no one other than yourself.” The Age of Anti-Social Media Is Here. (This article gets at a lot of the stuff that worries me most about chatbots.)
+ UPS Crash: “Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Wednesday morning there were at least nine confirmed deaths and 11 injuries from a United Parcel Service cargo plane crash near the Louisville airport Tuesday evening.”
+ Ground Control to Major Don: “President Donald Trump announced Tuesday he has decided to nominate Jared Isaacman to serve as his NASA administrator, months after withdrawing the tech billionaire’s nomination because of concerns about his political leanings.” First he was nominated, then removed, then renominated. It all could be a reflection of Trump’s on again off again friendship with Elon Musk.
+ Groped: “The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, was groped by a man as she mingled with citizens on the streets of Mexico City, raising questions about the lack of presidential security and the level of sexual harassment the country’s women face.”
+ A Nobel Effort: What do you do if you can’t get the peace prize you want? Have your friend invent a new peace prize. Trump ally Infantino to award first Fifa Peace Prize at World Cup draw in DC.
Bottom of the News
“It’s hard for me to imagine a more heartwarming family moment than bringing home a new puppy while simultaneously leveraging M&A announcements via omnichannel synergies to pump your biotech investment. I think we can all relate.” Tom Brady Cloned His Dead Dog As A Brand Activation. (My beagles once tried to clone me to get double the treats.)
+ Japan deploys troops to combat record wave of deadly bear attacks.
