Middle of the Road

Mid-terms are about the middle in more than the obvious way.

Although they are about the middle of a Presidency they are also about the middle of the political spectrum. It's the 'middle', the 'floating voters', the 'independents' that will prove vital to the beginning of a new congressional term. This is because, as the party die-hards only become more partisan, the middle are becoming increasingly disillusioned by the politics of either of the parties that dominate in the US.

Although, as the BBC points out, the tea-partiers are trying to claim that they are indeed the middle, what this disillusionment really results in are voters who simply don't turn out to vote. And this is the real issue with mid-term elections; not only do the elections suffer the low US turnout due to the regularity of political events but they also suffer from the hangover of an often high-profile Presidential term. As a result it is the bitter squabbling, rather than the policies, of the candidates that dominates the headlines. Meanwhile the middle often simply try to reinforce their message from two years prior, in this case, on which Obama came to power:

'Work together to fix our country.' What could be more simple than that?