If the Democrats don't pass comprehensive health care reform with a robust public option, and if Obama doesn't sign it, the Democrats will be in very big trouble in the next couple of elections. The majority of people in this country want comprehensive health care reform with a robust public option, and they will not be in the mood to vote for Democrats the next time if they don't get it. They probably won't be in the mood to vote for incumbent Republicans, either.

The election in New York being a close call is hardly reflective of the public's attitude towards Obama or the Democrats. That has traditionally been a Republican district and no Democrat has been elected there in many decades. The fact that a Democrat has finally won there after so long should give the Republicans more pause than the Democrats.

According to polls, the results in New Jersey and Virginia didn't have anything to do with people's opinions of Obama. In the case of New Jersey, it had more to do with the incumbent governor's ties to Wall Street. In Virginia, the Republican candidate kept his real political philosophy hidden and ran as a mainstream centerist, and has, as was noted by someone else somewhere, strong suburban Northern Virginia ties (the suburbs of Northern Virginia containing the largest segment of the electorate), while the challenger was socially awkward and seemed too different from that segment of the electorate, coming from a more rural part of the state. So the results in Virginia don't necessarily reflect on the Democrats or Obama, either.

I tend to doubt that had the Republican candidate in Virginia been more open and honest about his political philosophy, we would have won this election. That's just not the mood of the country right now.