This newspaper doesn't comment much on overseas events, because there are other people around the world who are much better at it.

Still, the change in political fortunes for US President Barack Obama and the Democrats just two years after the euphoria of the 2008 elections is important.

The many people in Bermuda who welcomed the election of President Obama in 2008 should not despair too much after the shellacking his party took in this week's mid-term Congressional elections. And for Bermuda, there is a small silver lining as well.

First, mid-term elections are terrible predictors of presidential elections. Republican Ronald Reagan took a beating in the 1982 mid-term elections and won the 1984 elections in a landslide. Democrat Bill Clinton lost majorities in the House and the Senate in 1994 and easily defeated Sen. Bob Dole two years later.

In President Reagan's case, the recovery of the US economy was the primary driver of the 1984 "morning in American" campaign. President Clinton moved to the centre and in many ways the best years of his presidency were from 1994 to 1996.

So Obama supporters should not despair too much. But a great deal depends on his ability to get the US economy moving again.

For Bermuda, the loss of the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives will probably end moves in this Congress to pass anti-tax haven legislation which could have had negative ramifications for the Island.

In the meantime, it is important that Premier Paula Cox and her team continue to strengthen ties with US politicians on both sides of the aisle in Washington, DC. You never know what friends you will need or when.