Boucher's loss is unfortunate, as he was one of the few powerful voices against intellectual property expansionists. He was also one of the prime movers on universal service fund reform. Rural folks are unlikely to see significant change in broadband deployment over the next two years, as I anticipate that last 10-15% of the population will remain uneconomical to serve without federal subsidy or other federal policy.
Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnel prove there are limits to craziness, even in an election year. A mild comfort.
Spread on polling was interesting. While races seemed reasonably accurate in terms of overall count, some were clearly outliers. Reid did better than expected, Conway did worse than expected, Frank, Dingell and some others were never in danger, despite dire predictions of last minute polls showing vulnerability. OTOH, NH went much more solidly R than had been anticipated.
I expect the press will focus on 2012, election coverage being the only thing they do now.
As for actual accomplishments of the coming Congress. Heh. Rule #1 in politics is you get what you reward. Further, this class of Republicans, unlike the 1994 class, don't have any specific things they want to do other than repeal the signature accomplishments of the previous Congress, which they cannot do without the Senate. OTOH, the one place where the House can accomplish a lot is the budget. So anyone on extended unemployment is probably out of luck. So are states, which have been relying fairly heavily on federal aid.
What amuses me is that most people do not think of teachers, firefighters, and other folks they deal with daily as state workers. They believe that their tax money goes to "bureaucrats" and that, somehow, you can trim "fat" while still getting all the services you need. Mind you, few folks actually go and do any research into what government expenditures we are actually making or how government actually works. This does not, however, stop folks from being morally certain -- and then being surprised.
Fun times ahead, depending on what happens with a few key unknowns.