A Reality Check for Democrats

It is a truism in politics that special elections usually don't mean very much. But Tuesday's runoff election in the Georgia Six, as it came to be known, could be one of the exceptions to the rule. If, on Tuesday, the Democrats had captured this deep-red congressional seat in an affluent suburb of Atlanta, it would have been a major blow to President Trump and his Republican allies. Conceivably, it could have affected the progress of the controversial G.O.P. health-care bill and other matters pending in Congress. Undoubtedly, it would have been received as a harbinger of the Democrats' chances in next year's midterms. But, by ten o'clock on Tuesday night, the Republicans gathered at the headquarters of Karen Handel, their party's candidate, were already celebrating a victory over Jon Ossoff, the young Democratic upstart.