John Dickerson of Slate is a liberal who's smart about politics. Here he writes a primer on how to evaluate the various outcomes one of which will be in place a week from today, depending on how many Senate seats the GOP manages to win.
His bottom line, if Republicans only manage to win seats in the states Romney carried in 2012, it will give them Senate control but not bragging rights. Such an outcome will only prove that Republicans vote for Republicans, which we already knew. It should not become the basis for arguing that the GOP has a policy mandate from the nation.
On the other hand, the more Senate seats the GOP wins in purple or even blue states the more it can claim a policy mandate. It isn't a bad analysis.
