Michael Barone: Neither party's prayers were answered

The Republican president, considered a lightweight and ignoramus by many in Washington, suffers a setback in the off-year elections, losing several seats and effective control in the House, while maintaining and perhaps strengthening his party in the Senate. His leverage on domestic issues is reduced, but he retains the initiative on foreign policy and judgeships.

That’s a fair description of this week’s offyear elections — and of those in 1982, the last time voters paired a Republican president with a Democratic House and a Republican Senate. It also resembles results in 1962, when a Democratic president’s party gained four Senate seats and lost four in the House.