Michael Barone on Tuesday's congressional election in Ohio:

In this week's election, Democrats apparently were able to motivate their Bush-hating core to go to the polls. Republicans, who demonstrated such prowess at turning out their voters in November 2004, did not do nearly as well in motivating their base. Turnout will be much higher in November 2006. But this result will give heart to the www.dailykos.com Democrats who argue that all they need to do is to turn out Bush-haters. And it should give pause to Republicans and raise the question as to whether the Republican base—much larger in this district than the Democratic base—will turn out in record numbers in November 2006 as it did in November 2004. The conservatives at www.polipundit.com are speculating that Democrats will be misled in pursuing a turn-out-the-base strategy that proved a loser in 2004. Maybe so; indeed, I'm still inclined to agree. But if I were Karl Rove or Republican National Chairman Ken Mehlman, I would be thinking hard about how to motivate the Republican base.