president-elect donald trump paid a visit to the white house thursday, and by all accounts he was pleasant toward the current occupant. he should be, since mr. trump owes his victory to barack obama. hillary clinton <u+2019>s defeat has left the democratic party a smoldering heap, its leaders pointing fingers over who or what to blame: james comey. robby mook. voter suppression. wikileaks. sexism. barely a mention has been made of the man who presided over one of the most epic party meltdowns in the country<u+2019>s history: mr. obama. deep democratic fissures have been on display for years, with mrs. clinton<u+2019>s rancorous primary against bernie sanders only the most recent example. but the media chose to ignore this and instead to obsess about largely superficial gop divisions. all along this election has been portrayed as a referendum on mr. trump. tuesday<u+2019>s results are far better viewed as a thundering repudiation, at every level, of mr. obama<u+2019>s governing and policies. in 2009, the president<u+2019>s first year in office, the democrats held 257 house seats, a majority that was geographically and politically diverse. after tuesday the figure stands at 193, and fully one-third of these democrats hail from three blue states: new york, california and massachusetts. the story is equally grim for democrats in the senate. in 2009 they held the first filibuster-proof majority since the 1970s, which evaporated in the wake of obamacare. tuesday<u+2019>s vote was the best chance democrats will have in years to retake the chamber, but they lost nearly every close race. when mr. obama took office, democrats owned 29 governorships. after tuesday it is 15, with ballots in north carolina<u+2019>s tight race still being counted. democrats controlled 60 of the 99 state legislative chambers in 2010. today it is 30. now that republicans have won the kentucky state house for the first time in 95 years, democrats no longer control a single legislative chamber in the south. the party of the left will hold the governorship and both chambers in precisely five states. this isn<u+2019>t to take away from mr. trump<u+2019>s supporters, or his message. but the numbers above are a reaction to democratic failure<u+2014>to a president who rammed through unpopular legislation and governed via executive order and extralegal regulation. tuesday<u+2019>s results are a response to a government that targeted conservative nonprofits, left veterans on waiting lists, botched a health website and left the world to burn. <u+201c>my legacy is on the ballot,<u+201d> mr. obama said in september, in what was the truest statement of the campaign. let<u+2019>s not be chintzy: there<u+2019>s plenty of democratic blame to go around. mrs. clinton could have run a <u+201c>change<u+201d> campaign and moved her party back toward the centrism that earned bill clinton all those white, working-class voters. she instead catered to the progressive left. one exit poll shows mrs. clinton won union households by 2 percentage points, when mr. obama carried them by 18. of the 207 swing counties that went for mr. obama only once (in 2008 or 2012), mr. trump won 194. this is an utter abandonment of the democratic party that mr. obama and mrs. clinton led. it<u+2019>s also an extraordinary grant of power to republicans. they<u+2019>d be wise to immediately understand that they now own the results. voters are giving the gop one chance to deliver on the change it has promised, and the party can<u+2019>t afford easy mistakes. the risks are obvious: first is the threat of internecine warfare. mr. trump has promised to <u+201c>drain the swamp<u+201d> that is washington, d.c. but if he chooses to battle his own caucus<u+2014>which, after years of primaries and turnover, is far more reformist than even a few years ago<u+2014>he risks alienating his core supporters. similarly, if gop purists in congress decide to ride herd on their leaders and on mr. trump, demanding perfection over progress, republicans will look even more ineffective than they did out of power. the nascent talk of firing paul ryan is as counterproductive an idea as they come. from the perspective of getting things done, mr. trump has an almost ideal team: a house speaker who is the ultimate policy wonk; a senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell, who is a master tactician; a vice president-elect, mike pence, who has great relations with both men, knowledge of congress and the ability to serve as a go-between. the other obvious risk is that mr. trump might try to fix all of the obama mess, all at once. that<u+2019>s a recipe for a muddle. republicans could do nothing smarter in the coming weeks than agree to prioritize a few sweeping, key initiatives<u+2014>say, health care and tax reform<u+2014>that would immediately boost the economy. earning public trust with big, early victories will buy time for more reform down the road. republicans have been elected as the anti-obamas. which means they<u+2019>ve been elected to make things better. if they can remember that, they have a shot. write to kim@wsj.com.
trump<u+2019>s secret weapon: obama - wsj
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