Republican leaders have quickly sought to cast their gubernatorial victories in New Jersey and Virginia as the beginning of a resurgence for their party and a sign of trouble for President Obama while the White House argues that the results are not about the president.

Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele said Wednesday that Republican victories in the governors' races demonstrated "a transcendent party" that was on the move again and credited an electorate increasingly fed up with Obama's policies.

"The Republican renaissance has begun. It has begun in earnest, in which we put our faith in the hopes and dreams of the American people to rebuild our economy from the bottom up, not the big deficit spending plans and policies of the politicians in Washington or our state capitals," he said...