And let's face it, nobody plays dumb like Peggy Noonan.

In her WSJ column this week, she sets aside nearly 1,300 words an analyze last week's election, which she robotically concludes were a nightmare for Democrats, and especially Obama because voters rose up against him in N.J. and VA., where new GOP governors were elected. And yes, while making that the central point of her column, Noonan completely ignored the N.J. and VA. exit polling which indicated most voters did not consider Obama when they cast their votes on Tuesday.

But that's par for the Noonan course.

More importantly though, was that out to those 1,300 words about Tuesday's elections, guess how many Noonan dedicated to the Congressional race in Upstate N.Y., which Democrats won in a shocker? Answer: 24 words.

But oh, were those 24 words were priceless [emphasis added]:

The congressional race in upstate New York was too messy, too local, and too full of jumbly facts to yield a theme that coheres.

The race--y'know the one where the red district went blue for the first time in nearly 150 years--was too confusing for Noonan to figure out. The federal race was of no interest to Noonan, who instead spent her column inferring all kinds of things about the president's political standing based local statewide races; races where the voters told pollsters that Obama was not a factor in their vote. Got it?

And oh yeah, N.Y.-23 was too local to be of any interest to Noonan.

Honestly, how does she even type that with a straight face, and how do her editors print it without a profound sense of embarrassment?

Note to Noonan: The whole reason N.Y.-23 took on national significance in the days running up to Tuesday, was because the race has been completely nationalized by conservatives, who poured in buckets of national money and tried to turn the race into a national referendum.

But when they lost, GOP cheerleaders like Noonan announced the race was too confusing to understand; to messy for her to figure out. Too local.

Like I said, nobody plays dumb like Peggy Noonan.

UPDATED: Perhaps this recent Politico headline will jog Noonan's memory about why the Upstate N.Y. election wasn't so “local”:

NY-23 race first test of tea party power

Conservatives failed that test, of course. But Noonan prefers to play dumb.

UPDATED: Or maybe this will refresh Noonan's memory. It was from Steve Krakauer at Mediaite.com, pre-Election Day:

Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity really want Doug Hoffman to win that special congressional election in Upstate New York's 23rd district. It's not just because he's a 3rd party “Conservative” candidate in a race that saw the shunned, moderate Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava drop out and endorse the Democrat, Bill Owens.

It's because this race is a referendum on town halls, on tea partying, on the 9/12 Project.

That doesn't sound very “local,” does it Peggy?