Updated: Conservatism: Reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated

Tonight's election results return Virginia firmly to its red state status.  The three highest state offices have been won by Republicans, and, not just won, but in decisive fashion.

In New Jersey, the Republican candidate stands a real chance of winning in the most blue of blue states.

In the NY-23 Congressional district, a Democrat posing as a Republican was forced to quit the race and the likely victor in a traditional Republican (not conservative) district will be the Conservative Party candidate.
UPDATE: Not.  Hoffman couldn't overcome the odds and the D candidate and now interim Congressman eked out a close victory.  Can't win them all.  Still a win for conservatives in sending a message to the GOP to not nominate Democrats.

We can already divine the winners and losers tonight:

Winners:

• Tea Partiers - forcing Dede Scozzfava out of the NY-23 race, and the election of Doug Hoffman is the largest victory for this grassroots movement opposing intrusive government and high taxes.
• Sarah Palin - Sorry all you haters out there.  Palin was quick to jump on the Hoffman train, and may have been the force that pushed Dede out.
• Rush Limbaugh - like Sarah Palin, Rush has provided the spark behind the anti-big government movement
• New Jerseyites - if Christie wins, they get a chance (a chance) to reclaim their state and remove the onerous policies of John Corzine. 

Losers:

• Barack Obama - if Corzine pulls out a victory in NJ, Obama will claim victory.  It will be pyrrhic.  He's the big loser tonight, regardless.  Swings in Virginia and NJ are from 10-25 points against Obama.  This is coming largely from INDEPENDENT voters, not Republicans.  In NJ, CNN's exit polls show the 28% of NJ independents voting 58% to 31% for Christie.  In Virginia, independents went for McDonnell at a 65% clip.  The bloom is off the Obama rose.
• Blue Dog Democrats - they will be losers if they don't correctly interpret the results of these races.  People are sick and tired of the endless expansion of government.  They didn't like it when Bush did it, they expected Obama to reverse that course (all hopey and changey), and the especially don't like the bait and switch they were handed in the last 9 months.
• Health Care Reform - Big loser.
• New Jerseyites - If Corzine wins, they get to spend another few years with the most incompetent governor in the nation.  

So, we'll wait and see what happens with the NJ and NY-23 races.

If Dems can steal these elections, they will.