The 2016 US Presidential Election (n.) has given the GOP the rare opportunity to retroactively redeem its brand. The conventional perception, incessantly repeated by Democrats and the media, is that Washington dysfunction is the work of the Party of No. Expose the real agent of do-nothing. Show that, when Harry Reid can no longer consign House-passed legislation to oblivion, Congress can actually work.
Midterm election (n.) is a referendum on a president whose name is not on the ballot.
A Midterm election (n.) punishes the party in power for having won the last one.
A Midterm election (n.) is decided by the people who remembered it was happening.
A Midterm election (n.) is like a complaint form, filled out mostly by the angry.
Runoff (n.) is the one vote where everyone's second choice gets to be somebody's first.
Runoff (n.) is a rematch in which both fighters pretend the first round did not count.
Runoff (n.) is what a plurality becomes when the rules insist on a majority.
Runoff (n.) is democracy's second draft, with the worst candidates edited out.
Snap Election (n.) is democracy at the speed of a leader's nerves.
Snap Election (n.) is a bet placed by someone who has seen the polls and not yet seen the voters.
Snap Election (n.) is what a prime minister calls when parliament has voted and he wants a second opinion.
Snap Election (n.) is a government cashing in its chips before the table notices they were borrowed.