Ohio's own New Jersey and Virginia

Last night, the GOP won a stunning victory by not only winning, but far outperforming expectations in Virginia and scoring a victory in the impeccably blue state of New Jersey.

Much of the mainstream media is surprisingly portraying it as I hoped they would....a message for Barack Obama and the nation as a whole.

In addition, we learned three lessons from NBC's Chuck Todd about last night:

Lesson No. 1: Democrats Lost Indies
Lesson No. 2: Obama’s Base Is No Longer Fired Up And Ready To Go
Lesson No. 3: Incumbents, Watch Out

Clearly, these lessons are all significant to Governor Ted Strickland's hopes for re-election.

But that isn't all.

Last night in Ohio the unbelievable happened.

Ohio had its own New Jersey and Virginia moment.

Two Democrat Mayoral candidates of major liberal Ohio cities lost their campaigns.

In Toledo, Independent Mike Bell beat Democrat Keith Wilkowski.

But what was most interesting, and telling, was the defeat of incumbent Mayor Rhine McLin of Dayton. McLin lost 52-48 to Independent Gary Leitzill. Leitzill, a businessman, ran on a platform of cutting waste and bringing business savvy to Dayton.

And this has to scare the living hell out of Ted Strickland.

Why? Because in 2006, Strickland won the city of Dayton 71-27 over Ken Blackwell.

That means yesterday's election brought a 48 point swing away from how Ted Strickland performed in the city of Dayton three years ago.

Now, of course, the comparison with both NJ and VA isn't perfect. For example, these two mayors faced Independent challengers, not Republicans. Also, neither city is considered a swing state the way Virginia was. And none were a blowout.

But one thing is clear. In both, Democrats were rejected in cities that have overwhelmingly voted Democrat in previous elections. And in the desperately blue city of Dayton, an incumbent Democrat, and Vice-Chair of the Ohio Democratic Party, lost to a rookie politician who promised to bring a new way of doing things to his constituency.

An omen of things to come? I think so.