Michael Barone: “Sherlock Holmes famously solved a mystery by noticing the dog that didn’t bark in the night. Dogs that are not barking at night – nor in prime time – provide some useful clues to understanding the significance of this year’s election. … [T]he Obama Democrats expected their policies to be popular. They thought voters would appreciate being showered with what Mitt Romney infelicitously called ‘free stuff.’ The New Deal historians assured us that in times of economic distress voters would have a hearty appetite for big government. … As Holmes might deduce, the solution to the clue of the non-barking Democratic dogs is that most voters lack faith in government to solve problems, to make their lives better or even to perform with minimal competence. …Barack Obama, once hailed as the wave of the future, now looks like a reminder of a past that his party would like to forget.”