PATRICK RUFFINI on the straight-ticket youth vote in 2008. Plus, an interesting chart from Greg Mankiw.

Plus, Jennifer Rubin notes that it wasn’t a landslide and observes: “It is no consolation to Republicans who lost to say it could have been worse. But it really could have. This suggests that if the Republicans manage to get their act together, by recruiting better candidates and coming up with a competitive and distinctive message, they can get back in the game. That’s what Republicans did between 1976 and 1980 and between 1964 and 1968. And in each of those cases they were even further in the hole than they are now.”

This will, however, require a degree of focus and self-discipline that has been absent in recent years.