Well, it was a good 12 months for the Democrats. They had their fun: their Nobel Prizes, their Equal Pay Acts, their Portuguese Water Dogs. But all good things must come to an end. And Tuesday night, the Obama Age ended not with a whimper, but with something significantly quieter than a whimper.

On Tuesday night, Republican governors swept into power with wins in both Virginia and New Jersey, states soon-to-be-former President Barack Obama won just a year ago. In Virginia, state Sen. Creigh Deeds got the Creigh beat out of him by Attorney General Bob McDonnell. McDonnell ran a smooth and positive campaign on issues like jobs, taxes and, well that was actually it: just jobs and taxes. Meanwhile his opponent, Deeds, brought up irrelevant points about whether gays and women deserve equal rights just like the rest of us.

Deeds pointed to McDonnell’s 1989 master’s thesis wherein the now governor-elect wrote, “government policy should favor married couples over 'cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators.' ” But this was just the guy’s 93-page thesis. As college students, we've all faced due dates and in a frenzied panic, and with three or four Red Bulls in us, we have likely written some pretty wacky stuff. Who hasn’t, as the witching hour approaches, scribbled down a page or two saying that working women and feminists were “detrimental” to the American family? Who cares if McDonnell spent literally years working on the thesis and gave it the meaningless title “The Republican Party's Vision for the Family"? These were just Bobby’s wild college years when he was 35 years old and attending televangelist Pat Robertson’s Regent University, a fundamentalist Christian safety school.

Before the election, McDonnell said, “Like everybody, my views on many issues have changed as I have gotten older.”

Of course, his views have changed. Except on gay rights. And abortion rights. And whether government policy should favor married couples over cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators. But beyond that, he’s a changed man.

Congrats, Virginia. You guys must be partying like it’s 1949, because your new governor certainly thinks it still is.

A bigger upset came in the solidly blue home state of Zach Braff: New Jersey. There, former United States Attorney and Tony Soprano look-a-like Chris Christie ousted incumbent governor and all-around unlikable person Jon Corzine by a five-point margin. This race was a dirty one, even by New Jersey standards. (Fun Fact: New Jersey is dirty.)

First, Corzine made thinly veiled attempts to point out Christie’s, let’s say, ample carriage. After running ads accusing Christie of “throwing his weight around” while U.S. attorney, a reporter asked Corzine, “Is Chris Christie fat?” to which the governor responded, “Am I bald?” (Fun Fact: Jon Corzine is very bald.)

Christie, using his own brand of dirty tricks, called Corzine a failed governor who broke numerous campaign promises including a promise to lower New Jersey’s property taxes, which are the highest in the nation. Christie also brought up the fact that Corzine spent tens of millions of dollars of his own money on his re-election campaign — money he made while helping to lay the foundation for the complete decimation of the world economy as co-CEO of Goldman Sachs in the mid-1990s. Sometimes politics is an ugly, dirty, fat, bald business, all right.

In his concession speech Corzine concluded, “There’s a bright future ahead for New Jersey if we stay focused on people’s lives, and I’m telling you, I’m going to do that for the rest of my life,” before adding: “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to finish reinforcing the floor boards at the Governor’s Mansion before Chris Christie moves in. Ohhhh!” In New Jersey, even the political winds have an unsafe level of toxic materials.

There was only one gloomy spot in what was otherwise a total rebuffing of Obama and his socialist agenda.