Even the most durable name in American politics isn’t immune to the punishing winds of political change.

That’s the reality for Hillary Clinton today as she soaks up losses in most of the competitive places she campaigned this midterm election year.

Clinton certainly can’t be held responsible for the Democrats’ debilitating defeats across the map. But the resounding GOP victory serves as an instructive reminder of the American electorate's volatility and how swiftly fortunes can change.



Photos: 2014 Election Winners, Losers View All 21 Images

For all the plaudits both Clintons – Hillary and former President Bill – receive for their star power on the campaign trail, it didn’t matter much to disgruntled voters who were itching for something new.

“This was not only a repudiation of the president, but I think really a repudiation of Hillary Clinton,” Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a potential Republican rival of the former secretary of state in the 2016 presidential race, said on CNN Wednesday morning. “Everybody thought, 'Oh, hey, I'm going to be a Clinton Democrat.' Turns out that's not so popular in a lot of states either.”



“Hillary’s Policies Were On The Ballot,” blared an early morning press release issued by the Republican National Committee.

With President Barack Obama largely sidelined from the campaign trail, it was the Clintons who picked up the slack. Hillary Clinton traveled to 20 states in all, mostly in the final weeks of the campaign. But her win-loss record was middling.

Of the 10 U.S. Senate candidates Clinton stumped for, just three clinched victories. She sided with the winning candidate in just five of the 11 governor's races in which she campaigned. (A spokesman for Clinton did not respond to a question seeking her reaction to the outcome.)

“It’d be a mistake to read too much into any midterm. We know how midterms work,” former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said when asked about the impact of Tuesday’s results on a 2016 Clinton candidacy.

But he acknowledged that Clinton should take stock of the energy that produced another repudiation of the dysfunction in Washington.

“She’s going to have to assess the fallout here and figure out whether how much of a launching pad does she have actually, as she contemplates the race,” Daschle said at a panel in Washington sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center. “She’s certainly not an outsider. She’s going to have to address the fact that she’s been part of Washington in one way or another for a long time.”



But if Clinton is to bear some brunt of the Democratic losses, so is Gov. Martin O’Malley, a 2016 Democratic presidential aspirant whose lieutenant governor was upset by a long shot Republican in the Maryland governor’s race.

In the final days, O’Malley joked he would be Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown’s “best deputy field director” by spurring enthusiasm among the Democratic base.

They’re not laughing now. Brown, O’Malley’s hand-picked successor, experienced a jarring defeat that was embarrassing for both men.

Perhaps no potential presidential candidate had a bigger night than New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who, as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, helped add governorships to the GOP banner while presiding over a series of impressive wins in battleground states.

Christie can take at least partial credit for preserving embattled governors in Florida, Maine, Michigan and Wisconsin, while adding seats in Massachusetts, Maryland, Arkansas and Illinois.

“Think about it: We were the exact opposite of the Senate map. We were defending two-thirds of seats last night. Nine of the seats we were defending, the president won eight of those. We won eight of those nine races last night. So our governors did great. Our candidates did very well,” Christie said on Fox News Wednesday morning.

At least one of the GOP governors who won re-election – Wisconsin’s Scott Walker – will seriously contemplate his own presidential campaign in the coming months.

It’s as unfair to saddle Clinton with Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley’s loss in Iowa as it is to deliver full credit to Christie for Walker’s win in Wisconsin. Voters don’t usually make their decisions based on surrogates – no matter how compelling they are. Midterms are their own beasts and have proved to be counternarratives to presidential outcomes.

But make no mistake: The top political lieutenants for Clinton, Christie and the rest of the lot are spending a good deal of time trying to interpret what unfolded, why and what it means for them.