Crony businessman Terry McAuliffe rode a massive 70-22% margin among single women to a shockingly tiny victory over Ken Cuccinelli -- while Chris Christie has been declared the winner of the GOP Media Primary for the 2016 presidential nomination.  These are just a few of the fascinating developments from Virginia, New Jersey, and elsewhere last night.  Oddly, Fox News was not nearly as fascinated by any of it as were CNN and MSNBC -- that is, until Christie took to the podium at 10:15 eastern.

Meanwhile, the Republican establishment's expected victory dance on the grave of the Tea Party movement should be at least postponed, if not canceled -- and the Jurassic media's "move along, nothing to see here" attitude toward ObamaCare's nearly devastating impact on McAuliffe's campaign rang hollow and desperate across cable networks last night.

Oh, and while we're at it, let's not forget the game-changing significance that socially liberal faux libertarian Robert Sarvis had on the Virginia race.  For months, it was assumed he was hurting Ken Cuccinelli's campaign.  However, in the final weeks, as his liberal social positions became more evident, it appeared that he was perhaps pulling a lot of support from McAuliffe as well.  In the end, exit polls from yesterday prove that he did indeed hurt the Republican the most, validating the money Democrat bundlers put behind this campaign -- a captivating dynamic that saw the light of day just 24 hours ago.

Consider: Exit polls had Cuccinelli winning among those who oppose Obamacare 80-11%, while Sarvis got the other 9%.  That would indicate that Cuccinelli was in position to win those something like 8-1% had they voted, which is more than enough to win comfortably.  This is backed up by the fact that according to numerous polls, Virginians oppose ObamaCare by something like 8% -- and yet pro-ObamaCare McAuliffe won by about 1%.  Slice it any way you want to, and Sarvis appears to have cost Cuccinelli about a touchdown, in spite of last-second efforts by Ron Paul to appeal to libertarian voters on behalf of Cuccinelli.

This of course brings shame and well-earned discredit onto the head of CATO Institute founder Ed Crane, whose "Purple PAC" poured 300 grand of anti-Cuccinelli advertising into Virginia on behalf of, well, supposedly Sarvis.

McAuliffe and the Clintons send their thanks, Mr. Crane.

The net/net of all of these results are myriad, including some legitimate fear of what Obamacare will do to Democrat chances in 2014.  This was based on how the roll-out had erased almost all of a double-digit lead for McAuliffe in the final weeks, even though the Democrat outspent Cuccinelli 4-1 down the stretch to hammer the war on women meme.  According to Newt Gingrich, commenting for CNN, the ObamaCare factor was "very sobering for every Democrat up for election in 2014," a sentiment echoed later by Wiliam Kristol -- and apparently most Americans, who now disapprove of the president 53-39%, according to Gallup yesterday.

Moreover, the GOP establishment's glee over Cuccinelli's troubles were certainly mitigated by his late rally and the thin margin.  It was no secret that the GOP was counting on the inevitable big Christie win and a big Cuccinelli loss to bury the Tea Party for good, as explained by Mark Levin, who outed them on Tuesday.

Even well-known liberal commentator Larry Sabato threw cold water on such a celebration, stating on CNN that the final margin was going to "be so close at to make it difficult for GOP establishment moderates to say conservatives took it on the chin."  Of course, they will try anyway.

Meanwhile, in Trenton, Chris Christie won the Republican nomination for president for 2016, or so went the mainstream media analysis last night.  Officially, Christie cruised to a 20-point victory in his re-election battle against someone named Barbara Buono.  The national coverage of this race was consistent with that of the New York Times, who spent five paragraphs gushing about Christie's nomination prospects before even mentioning Ms. Buono by name.

Naturally, the conventional wisdom is that the Republicans must nominate someone who is a proven winner in a blue state, the implosion by Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney notwithstanding, apparently.  Thus, the meme that Governor Christie is the GOP's answer will be parroted by a whole lot of people who will never support a Republican for president under any circumstances, along with perhaps Ann Coulter.  This would include the very same people who just returned Christie to the State House by 20 points, as polls in New Jersey this week make it clear that Christie would get slaughtered by those same voters up against Hillary Clinton for president.

So, count on the tea leaves from New Jersey to be misinterpreted by the Jurassic media, and count on the Republican establishment to fall for it.  The main lesson of last night is that Obama and ObamaCare are toxic for Democrats and golden for Republicans -- as long as Republicans are tough enough to hammer Democrats on both.  The secondary lesson is that blue-state governors are fool's gold for our establishment.  It will be fascinating to see who learns what between now and 2014.

The author is frequent contributor to The American Thinker, a resident political expert for Talk Radio Network, and the author of WTF? How Karl Rove an the Establishment Lost...Again.