Democrats triumph in New York as Republicans fight like rats in a sack

Last night's US election results were billed as a verdict on one year of Obama. And the verdict was? Um.....er.....a mixed bag. The Republicans picked up the Virginia governorship, which was predictable. But a more knife-edge race in New Jersey, which the Democrats should have won, also swung to the Republicans.

However, any celebrations for the Republicans were somewhat dampened by the result in the 23rd New York congressional district, which was a truly stupendous result for the Democrats. It's the first time the Democrats have won that seat since the Civil War. And the reason they did it is a damning verdict on the current state of the Republican party. There were three main candidates in the race until last weekend; the unusual third contender being a candidate, Doug Hoffman, from the Conservative party. Yes, you read right, the American Conservative party. Their slogan is "Fighting the two party system, one county at a time". In an extraordinary display of indiscipline, and firm evidence, for me, that she cannot be considered a serious Presidential candidate for 2012, Sarah Palin supported Hoffman. Then last weekend the Republican candidate withdrew. The result of all this chaos in the Republican ranks was to let the Democrats in.

That in many ways is totemic of the state of the Republican party across the USA. They are fighting amongst themselves as to whether they should go for a right-ward lurch or occupy the centre ground. And they ain't done fightin' yet.

Take into account Bloomberg's narrow scrape at the hands of the Democrat candidate in New York, and recent polling (see below) and this isn't a bad set of results for Obama:

A year after he won the presidential election, 54% of Americans approve of the job President Obama is doing, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research survey.Said pollster Keating Holland: "Obama's approval rating of 54 percent is nearly identical to the 53 percent of the vote he won a year ago. And in nearly every demographic category, the percent that approve of Obama today is within two to three points of the percent who voted for him in 2008."