GOP’s Brown wins Mass. Senate race in epic upset
In an epic upset in liberal Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown rode a wave of voter anger to win the U.S. Senate seat held by the late Edward M. Kennedy for nearly half a century, leaving President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in doubt and marring the end of his first year in office.
[…]
Brown led by 52 per cent to 47 percent with all but 3 percent of precincts counted. Turnout was exceptional for a special election in January, with light snow reported in parts of the state. More voters showed up at the polls Tuesday than in any non-presidential general election in Massachusetts since 1990.
Kennedy’s son: Voters are ‘wanting blood’
The son of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy says a Republican victory in the race for his father’s Senate seat is a sign that the American public is out for “blood.”As election returns came in Tuesday night, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) said it’s clear that voters wanted “a whipping boy” for all the lost jobs and foreclosed homes.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday said that angst voters have expressed early this election year is the result of GOP obstructionism, not the Democrats agenda.
Axelrod Sounding Awfully Kind About Scott Brown
“My hat’s off to him.”
The president’s adviser, David Axelrod has praise for Brown and oblique criticism for Coakley today. It’s amazing how quickly a helping hand becomes backhanded when it comes from the White House, no?[…]
A clever Brown campaign + a bad campaign by Coakley + local issues = the White House spin in the event of a Coakley loss. Considering how stingy the White House generally is with praise for any foe (including citizens at Tea Parties), the pro-Brown element of this spin seems telling.
Brown Win Forces Democrats to Re-Evaluate Health Care Reform Game Plan
Though Democrats have discussed ways to fast-track the legislation so as to send it to President Obama’s desk before Brown gets sworn in, cracks in the Democrats’ resolve started to show Tuesday night.Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., said it would “only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Brown is seated.”
There will be more to say on all this tomorrow. For now, it’s worth observing that a Democratic Party that would abandon their central initiative this quickly isn’t a Democratic Party that deserves to hold power. If they don’t believe in the importance of their policies, why should anyone who’s skeptical change their mind? If they’re not interested in actually passing their agenda, why should voters who agree with Democrats on the issues work to elect them? A commitment provisional on Ted Kennedy not dying and Martha Coakley not running a terrible campaign is not much of a commitment at all.
Is this a wake up call for President Obama? Yes. Does he need to show that he is listening more? Sure. But should this election kill health care? Don’t be ridiculous. Who elected Massachusetts to decide for the rest of the country whether we move forward on the bill?
What else is happening this morning?
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The Confluence 
Naked Capitalists:
Unfortunately, I believe that may really be all that’s in the bag. Obama emerged from a political cult of personality as an idealized, heroic public image created through the unquestioning flattery and praise by Axelroves unprecedented use of a willing media and not because of his capability. And any reemergence has to be about him, expect humility from him today. The media with the exception of MSNBC/Politico have turned so also expect them to begin the deprograming just like last night with the facts Va, NJ now MA, polls etc.
Oh yeay! gett ready for a “teaching moment”
I know these Hitler in the bunker dubs are an old joke by now, but this one is hilarious. Watch it to the very end.
ROFLMFAO!!!
“Now we know why Obama won’t release his school records. Bush got C’s, Obama probably failed lunch.”
I added the Hitler video to my post, swapping out the one of Kevin Bacon.
I loved the end: We should have stuck with Hillary…
That was hilarious–but sad at the same time.
This needs to go viral.
OMGOMGOMG — ROFLMAO!!! I have tears in my eyes!
That’s probably the best one of those I’ve ever seen haha.
Funny
I may be a baaad person for laughing at that, but that was hilarious.
ROTFLALALALALALALALALMAO
ROFLAO!!! The last two lines are the kickers.
Best Ever!
Bwahahaha. You’d think it is old by now, but that was the best one yet.
Jeralyn talks the crazy PUMA talk:
Okay Jeralyn, repeat after me: “Party – Unity – My – Ass”
Very loudly: PARTY UNITY MY ASSSSSSS, Jeralyn. You are the idiots who got us into this mess!
Jeralyn will never admit she was wrong. Or had any responsibility at all for the empty suit in the White House.
She does not deserve to be called PUMA.
I’ll bet they’ll get all of the credit. Story of my life.
It’s happening on all the prog blogs now. They’ll never admit we were way ahead of them.
Idiots.
That’s the story of all worthwhile movements
Naw – there’s way too much in the TL archives to prove she came really late to the party.
Although, she did stick to her position on Coakley all the way to the end.
For the wrong reason though. Not because she flipped her stance on healthcare and became an O-bot, but because she’s a prosecutor.
how about just supporting issues period regarless of Party
Doesn’t this mean she’s a r@cist now.
If the likes of Ezra and Alter are the voice of where the dems are going to go with this (i.e. screw you, MA, you don;t speak for the country and we are going to pass this, dammit!) then I predict a bloodbath in 2010.
The arrogance is just astounding. If they had begun with a simple means-tested Medicare-for-all plan, we’d be there by now. But at this point? They have so enraged the public that they need to scrap healthcare, NOW. Table it and say they’ll come back to it. Get a MAJOR jobs and economy push going. Prove that they can do something, hell anything right, then come back to HCR after they’ve done that. The hard truth is that they need to do some atonement and regain a smidgen of credibility and trust before they try any more huge major changes.
Their hubris is going to kill the party deader than a doornail. And these fucking Lords of Intellect are too insular and blind to even see that.
Word to the creative class: You are NOT America. You are merely a part of the whole. You are not “the deciders”. You have to convince the hoi polloi. And if you don’t get that, and FAST, nothing can stop the political Armageddon to come.
A lot of these A-list bloggers seem to think their job is to tell people what to think.
Yeah, and they get so snitty and moan-y and insulted when the unwashed masses don’t say “Yassah Massah Creative Class!” and agree with them.
They keep expectantly waiting for the serfs to tug that forelock and be obsequiously grateful, and are so fucking puzzled when they pause, spit, and say, “Sounds fishy to me, and I got fields to plow.”
Hey, careful with those r@cist remarks: “fields to plow”.
🙂
Well, I was going with the “serf” theme. Should I have said cows to milk?
🙂
A favorite meme at the Obot blogs is that we “don’t understand how politics work.”
They don’t understand shit.
LOL. Maybe they can teach us how it really works. Oh please mr O-bot who knows all, who knows how Obama will do all these great things because all the lying during the campaign was lying to the right not to the left, who knows Coakley will win big, etc.
Maybe they should look tat their tack record for a sec.
They certainly didn’t understand how to vote, right?
Hey, I’m a proud serf and you’re probably one too, unless you’re way up there in the big leagues like Bill Gates or Soros.
WMCB, that sounds like a mirror image of Obama’s persona.
Josh Marshall is just beyond funny at this point.
Recall it was the slime Alter appearing on Charlie Rose a day or two before the NH debate who took the lead and a two by four to Hillary’s candidacy, arrogantly and smuggling declaring the good witch dead. They day after she won NH his Newsweek hit piece, what’s wrong with Dem’s we don’t need no stinking women we need men in this Party to win, and now ha they are both gone. So he is another Washington Post Co. Pundit with his inept dismal judgment about the One ascending on the line so I’m thinking not too many Dems should give a rats patoot what he has to say.
What ever happened to Gwen Ifill’s book, “The Age of Obama” ?
I’d love to borrow a copy and see how it ends. I haven’t seen her since she reported from the Republican convention following Palin’s speech. She looked like she’d had the wind knocked out of her.
Stupid, stupid Dems.
Maybe now they will realize that we are serious.
In fact, I just want to start chanting over and over and over again: “Carter, Carter, Carter.”
You think the bots will get it?
I don’t think Carter was ever THIS bad.
Me either. Carter was an ineffective president but he wasn’t a bad person.
BO’s just a con man.
he did one good thing habitat for humanity
I hate that little punk Ezra Klein.
He’s not old enough to have been through enough to pontificate to the public and expect them to listen. Shut up son, sit back and listen for awhile.
I’ve yet to see what his bona fides are to be an expert on health care or health care reform.
He is extremely annoying, and a Kool Aid die hard.
Thank ye fif! I’m glad someone agrees with me. Whenever I see him on the teevee or read him I want to shout at him “go outside and play with your skateboard-there are grown up things we need to do.” :LOL:
Oh, man, Larry is going OFF at No Quarter! Check out this rant against Keith Olberman.
http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2010/01/20/keith-olbermann-uber-ass/#more-41018
I saw an AP piece that had Patrick Kennedy says to vote for it now and fix it later:
I really can’t believe the poobahs don’t get it. But they will in 2010 and have only themselves to blame while they collectively scratch their asses saying “wha happened?”
Maybe if they do enough damage to themselves this November we can start rebuilding by 2012.
Wonder if Hillary would step up if it got bad enough?
Hillary is biding her time. She has wisely removed herself from Obama’s politics.
Sarah 2012.
Hillary 2016.
Accept no substitutes!
Hillary in 2016 is a non-starter. She’ll be ready for retirement. It’s got to be 2012 or never.
It’s 2012 or never
Do you think she’ll respond to a Draft Hillary movement?
The timing would have to be perfect though. Can’t do it if she’ll still SoS.
Isn’t this about the point in every previous job where O said he was bored and wanted to move on? How long before he announces he won’t be seeking re-election?
I agree, it’s got to be 2012 – 2016 is much too late in her game.
It has to be 2012.
2016 isn’t just too late for Hillary–it’s too late for everybody. The cure for Obama’s right-wing mismanagement is not six more years of right wing mismanagement.
I hope so. Rush L. said this morning that she should be gearing up for 2012. she certainly needs to make an exit.
I just heard the Gossipers…oops ‘authors’ of Game Change (Dirt Devil Gossip Book) that maybe a challenger would emerge in 2012 from within the Democratic Party.
It’s gonna take getting rid of all of those at the DNC and the “leaders” on the Hill. Even then I’m not holding my breath.
marsha, marsha marsh!
Maybe Patrick should focus on actually learning the name of the person he is campaigning for before he gets into policy details. Baby steps Patrick. Baby steps.
Mort Zuckerman is in BAD koolaid detox. I won’t even post a quote, just read the whole thing.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-01-19/hes-done-everything-wrong/?cid=bs:archive3
Okay, for the umpteenth time: We fucking TOLD you so. We predicted exactly who he was, and exactly the destruction he would wreak.
Indeed, we told them so. Someone should search our site for the phrase, “We told you so” and see how many times it comes up. I’m betting at least in the hundreds.
When we see the lobbyists and CEOs of the health insurance companies and Billy Tauzin streaming in and out of the Oval Office, it gives regular folks food for thought such as “Is this damned thing gonna screw us from the get-go?” And then folks see the talking heads, the chattering class and the pols themselves just say to us “Oh when we get done with this, you’ll really like and realize you’re better off.”
Thanks but no thanks.
Exactly. They want to sell a nebulous pig in a poke, then get miffed and call the people stupid and uninformed if we won’t buy it – on our Discover card at 30% interest.
There are people out there who may not have fancy degrees or know that much about politics, but they know what bullshit is and they know when they’re getting screwed.
Nail on the head, as usual, myiq.
The everyday American can tell when he or she is being fed bullshit.
Though, if true, then the GOP doesn’t stand much chance next time around. Can you say, “strong Independant candidate”?
Living down here in Australia, I have seen for myself the amazing influence of third, fourth, fifth and even sixth parties. It is my very real hope that America comes around to understanding how bad the two party system really is. The Dems and the Repubs are only swapping places – no party is actually taking control and helping the regular everyday American.
Massachusetts isn’t a red state or a swing state – it’s a solid blue state. Brown didn’t win because of low turnout with his base more motivated than hers. People weren’t voting on a proposition or for any other offices.
Turnout was high, and Brown won decisively.
Maybe in this case, myiq, it was all about punishing Obama. I don’t know – not sure why such a solid blue state went red except that maybe the blue voters were trying to send a message.
I don’t really think they were that angry over the Schilling gaffe.
The Schilling gaffe would have been a minor thing that blew over, if it had not had a deeper discontent underneath it to tap into.
Some things become the symbols, the avatars, for a larger truth. In this case it was the stand-in for the elitist, tone-deaf, behavior of the Dems that is so dismissive of the common man. THAT was where the anger and disgust came from, not just sports trivia. It was like Bush’s gallon of milk check-out line gaffe: How could a normal MA person not KNOW that?
This has always been true in politics. Things become symbols and touchstones for a reason, and I’m surprised the uber-intelligentsia knows nothing of that history of everyday humble symbols for discontent, of rallying cries.
“Obama’s ability to connect with voters is what launched him. But what has surprised me is how he has failed to connect with the voters since he’s been in office. He’s had so much overexposure. You have to be selective. He was doing five Sunday shows. How many press conferences? And now people stop listening to him. The fact is he had 49.5 million listeners to first speech on the economy. On Medicare, he had 24 million. He’s lost his audience. He has not rallied public opinion. He has plunged in the polls more than any other political figure since we’ve been using polls. He’s done everything wrong. Well, not everything, but the major things. I don’t consider it a triumph. I consider it a disaster.”
Stupid is as stupid does, Mort. You and your Messiah belong in the same category. We *used* to care what both of you said. Once upon a time.
plus he has noooooooooooooo coattails none
he dose sum it up well other than admitting his own stupidity in supporting Obama orginally.
Powerful enemy Obama has now.
Yes, and it was the Big Dawg who said “it’s the economy stupid” if I recall correctly.
Whoever pays attention to, “I told you so”? Definitely not the people who most need to do so. Obama reminds me of the defiant teenager who willfully pursues a self-destructive lifestyle as his/her life goes down the toilet hole sitting unrepentantly in jail ballistically ranting about why mom and dad have not arrived with the bail money.
Senator-elect Brown’s personal history reminded me of this classic…
Well, shozbot! Does Spammy disable embedding now? 😛
You do realize there is a reason “centerfold” triggers Spammy?
I do now that you tell me, but I still don’t know what the reason is.
Of course, I have been avoiding the political blogs lately in favor of my preferred fanfiction and anime sites, so I shan’t be up to speed on some things.
If a female Democrat posed in lingerie (or less) 20-30 years ago, would we think it was okay for the GOP to call her “centerfold girl” or something similar?
We’re supposed to be better than them.
Oops. Maybe I should go back to my trans-Pacific cuteness. 😳
There is plenty of stuff to criticize Brown for without going there.
There is a post over on youtube in response to a Hillary ad that says something like: the Brown win now assures that Joe Lieberman will lost the power he had in regards to the Health Care Bill.
Good point. At least there is that.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the GOPers had Olympia Snowe vote for HCR.
They WANT Obamacare to pass so they can run against it.
lol! true! Plus it delivers us as serfs to the insurance compaines…For the GOP ,what’s not to love?
Excuse me: LOSE the power, not lost.
Interesting commentary here and more than likely spot on.
http://www.ianwelsh.net/coakley-concedes-you-aint-seen-nothing-yet/
Ian:
I guess this means that I get off my butt and see if my precinct captain spot is open and recruit friends to do the same. Should have done it long ago. I’m such a dumba$$ sometimes.
Didn’t the Deaniacs have a 50-state policy and infiltrate the Dem Party from the bottom up? They did glide over to Obama for the post part.
Didn’t we have the kind of candidate who was willing and able to do what it takes with Hillary Clinton? Cheating her out of her rightful nomination is going to have its consequences. Those who turned out once for the “historic” media-fueled American Idol election are not going to be as motivated to work and donate to the party as the “base” that was told to “stay home” and that your vote, money, time for a candidate didn’t count if we wanted the Chicago machine’s second best.
Here’s some more poll date from Rasmussen:
I’ll bet those figures reflect CA voters rather closely. What it says to me is that we are still pretty much split down the middle in this country. As much as I am a liberal in many of my views, I do realize that only 20% self-identify that way and 40% self-identify as conservative—regardless of how they identify political party wise.
I think this is where the Clintons recognized reality and looked for where they could get things done that were worth getting done. This is where the o team really are trapped by their Chicago politics—they are not about getting things worth doing done. They are about deal making; they have no policy or moral compass. So they wind up with corrupt deals to accomplish ends that are not worthy of the struggle.
Had they put half the effort into ramming through single payer that they’ve expended on this POS they’d have had hordes strewing palms in the streets and singing hosannas when BO came to town. Talk about a “tin ear”!
The thing is the 40% who identify as conservative do so because change is scary. However, ask those same “conservatives” how they’d feel if liberal policy like a standard work week with a floor on wages or a safety net for their old ages and you’d see that. All the Democrats needed to do was pass good legislation that benefited the majority of the country. They are making it far more complicated then it need be. Particularly by taking the advice of the opposition team far more seriously then those on their own team.
WTV said this on the prior thread:
When will they GET this? It’s why Bill left with an almost 70% approval rating. From the 2000 election to this moment, they’ve refused to acknowledge this or Bill’s legacy.
The message from NJ and VA left them with quizzical looks on their faces. This (Mass.) should have their mouths drop to the floor.
Don’t worry, real change is on the way.
(Via Carolyn Kay at MakeThemAccountable.com)
White House, Democratic lawmakers cut deal on deficit commission
What, no townhall meetings?
*****A
Too bad reducing our military aggression isn’t on the table. Bad times are a set up for reducing entitlements. Yes, we all have to tighten our belts – or the all that isn’t wealthy. What remains of the safety net will have wider holes.
Isn’t that what Congress is supposed to do? Why create a new commission?
Because Congress wants to drastically raise taxes…. and they want to be able to blame some ‘commission’ (which will have Republicans on it) for it (after the commissions determines taxes need to be raised and there is no other alternative) so they don’t have to pay the price for it come Nov. 2010.
Under the agreement, President Obama would issue an executive order to create an 18-member panel…
Another way O is Bush 3. This is gold plated Bush “blue ribbon panel ” crapola. It’s a way to seem to being doing something, while doing nothing . oi. But one doesn’t have to wait to learn the findings of this blue ribbon / has been /hack report. I can give you the commission ‘s finding right now . It’s one page long, and it says …..”slash social services” .
Oh boy. Now comes the attack on “entitlements”, i.e. social security.
They really do want to start a revolution in this country.
From what I can tell after a quick tour of the blogs and listening to some CNN, the Villagers think Scott Brown won because the Obama Administration tried to go “too far left,” and the prog blogs are blaming the “stupid” Massachusetts voters.
{{sigh….}}
I don’t think Democrats are listening to the Villagers anymore. The jig is up with the DC establishment. Has been for awhile.
If you mean ordinary Dems, yes. But the DC dems are still thinking they have to go further right.
In other words, when something isn’t going well, they look to the Republican party to frame it all for them and tell them what’s going on. Same old same old.
Who would have thought that calling your fellow Democrats racists in order to win a primary could possibly backfire?
LOL, my favorite post of the day so far.
Mine, too.
And calling them bitter , clingy, and uneducated didn’t help either.
Bite me, Axelrod.
Don’t forget message to the base–stay home!
I just tried to access Twitter and got this message:
Martha broke Twitter!
I was on there for awhile really early, but got thrown off.
I think it might be down, because I can’t even get any updates on Tweetdeck.
Some of it is because Bill Gates joined Twitter.
Wow. MSNBC is really pushing nutty theories. They’re saying Brown won because he supports waterboarding.
That’s even dumber than Olbermann and Fineman’s musing last night that Brown’s pick-up truck was racist code.
OK, now that’s funny. Of course to them just about anything can be racist code. Of course they missed the obvious code right in front of them. He has two daughters. You know, two daughters. That’s clearly racist code. No, you’re not reading wrong, that made no sense whatsoever. 🙂
they always push nutty theories
Brown won because Martha backtracked and started looking too much like another Obama….leading straight to “buyer’s remorse”.
luv the foto of the Titanic. That pretty much sums things up for the Dems
That may be summing up America.
Crap. News said Haiti just had another quake. 6.1
Wow. Obama isn’t even a one-term president. The next three years should be highly amusing.
Brit Hume argues that Brown shutting down health care will save the Democrats:
Chris Bowers explains it all for you.
http://www.openleft.com/diary/17008/why-scott-brown-won-health-care-implications-and-what-the-election-means
He’s got nuttin’
Love your illustration!
Adding the tabloids – today Mass and NY
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/tabloids-the-mass-kicking/
Comment from FDL:
super comment.
Is this FDL commenter from TC?:
Oh wow, all that could have been read right here at TC years ago… or so it seems
The Big Orange Sippy Cup, et al, need to wake up to the fact that Barack “Barry Soetoro” Obama is not a true Democrat, and definitely NOT a progressive, and that’s why Coakley lost. He’s given billions to the banks, insurance companies, Big Pharma, continues two wars, doesn’t stand up for choice, etc., etc., etc. Barack is just another corporate tool, like Bush, and I’m sure him Creepy Corporate Cabal buddies are DELIGHTED at Brown’s win – they are Republicans, and the goal is to DESTROY the Democratic Party!
Evidently we have billions to give to banks but we need to be looking at cutting things like Social Security…….the party might as well call itself Republican party 2.0
happy inauguration anniversary – who is laughing now?
Can’t wait for the faux columns part deux.
Don’t blame Martha, she voted for Hillary:
http://syd4.blogspot.com/2010/01/dont-blame-martha-she-voted-for-hillary.html
The blame is squarely upon the Mass dem’s little boiz club…. for ignoring their constituants in 2008!
I do feel bad for Coakley. It’s like she was caught in the swirling sucking undertow created by BO’s ship starting to sink.
She’ll have lots of company this Nov, that’s for sure.
I fee bad for her too. She was a good candidate. She will not run again. Women never do.
I thought her concession speech was gracious and genuine—well done. How people lose says a lot about them.
How people lose says a lot about them.
That’s very very true.
Let’s not write her off. People learn most from what went wrong.
She has a lot to offer. She needn’t be another victim of Obamanation.
“Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time”
Harry S. Truman
wow made the rounds red and blue media, the key common words are disgust and corruption of Obama and DC Dems. And for a Political Sect built on and idealized heroic Personality the fan base other than the paid and the hard core won’t return. Steep swift fall from that pedestal no surprise but scary and sad still. Biden can’t fill the void Axelrove made him out as a stooge…. Reid is down for the count corrupted. Pelosi seems tone deaf out of touch. What a travesty 3 more years of no one at the helm.
I’d just like to comment to Syd that Obama has actually held very few press conferences. He’s made plenty of speeches and done plenty of interviews, but he has very seldom made himself available to unscreened questioning. Helen Thomas has made a big deal of this fact. I heard Chuck Todd make fun of her yesterday for that. This morning I learned that Ole Chuck Todd went to college on a scholarship for playing the French Horn. That explains alot about him.
Speaking of Chuck Toodd, did you know that little shit never even graduated from college? He attended for (4) years but never finished and sometimes works as an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins. So, you mean to tell me that my B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in International Relations led me to clearly see that Obama was a fraud and Hilliary would make an excellent President and the molding of young minds is being taken by a guy without a degree who thinks Obama walks on water?
That explains a lot; I’ll bet he is not the only faux intellectual on the boob tube.
I would like to see a Draft Hillary movement get started, which proposes to sweep the Chicago crowd out of the Democratic Party. Where’s Terry Macauliffe and Harold Ickes, et. al.? I hope they have little grins on their faces, and are rubbing their hands in anticipation.
draft her for what? She won’t run in 2012, obama will run for reelection.
I have this faint hope that if Nov is a complete disaster for the Dems then he might get pressured not to run for re-election.
After all, he’s never stuck around for the work of a job anyway … isn’t he getting bored and ansty already? Shouldn’t he be planning his next memoir “How America’s Raycists Were Mean to the Wonderfulest Preznit Ever”?
Not if he’s indicted, or so unpopular the people behind him start
releasing all his missing background material and force him to
not run.
If the country needs her, Hillary will run. And win.
Crazier things have happened.
(Does anyone know why my reply box goes out into space and I have
to start a new line so I can read it?)
(and my reply looks like crap?)
I experience the same out-in-space phenomenon. I ignore it and hope I don’t make too many typos in the hidden area. Then the comment shows up properly (albeit with typos).
For your schadenfreude enjoyment, I visited B0botland today
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/b0bots-the-morning-after/
Also, I forgot to mention that I read yesterday’s election in Mass. has given Harold Ford Jr. encouragement to run for the Senate seat in NY. He doesn’t get it either.
No matter what, Harold Ford cannot win NY (he’s probably buyin a pick-up as we speak). But he’ll buy a new Toyota Tundra.
I haven’t seen anyone mention Coakley’s concession speech. It was very good. She was quite endearing and honest. Too bad she had to be the sacrificial lamb to get Chicago’s DNC attention.
Good analysis at World Socialist Website
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/mass-j20.shtml
A great comment from the RBO blog – “Barack Obama has finally achieved transparency. On Tuesday, the voters of Massachusetts proved that they could see right straight through him.”
LOLOLOL.
From Karl Rove:
ROVE: Yes. Look, they’re going to blame her and — but remember, she was the popularly elected attorney general of the state of Massachusetts. She beat other Democrats in a primary to win this nomination. This is not a — you know, this is not a dreadful candidate. But you’re right, she was burdened by a year worth of policy from the Obama administration which is out of sync with America, even in a deep blue state. And think about it. She was ahead a month ago by big margins, and yet what crystallized this whole race was the Christmas Eve vote on the health care bill, which, as you pointed out, included things like the “Cornhusker kickback,” the “Louisiana purchase” and all these special privileges given out hither and yon in order to buy votes.
Pacific John put this up:
From CNN online today:
Liberal New York Democrat Anthony Weiner predicted the Senate bill wouldn’t have the votes to pass the House.
Weiner ridiculed House Democratic leaders for holding a meeting to brief House Democrats on negotiations with the White House on a health care bill, telling reporters, “They’re talking as if, ‘What our deal is, what our negotiators are at the White House’ — yeah, and then the last line is, ‘Pigs fly out of my ass’ … it’s just, we’ve got to recognize we are in an entirely different scenario.”
I think a lot of House Dems are going to pressure Pelosi to shelve the HCR bill and do something quick and splashy about jobs.
That’s the only way they have a hope of surviving in Nov.
IF they can actually achieve something quick about jobs then they can survive. They can pass all the legislation they can dream of but without actual jobs, its meaningless to the voters.
Exactly.
they will also need to get fast acting tax cuts in place, something of course the country cannot afford after all the bail-outs, and voters will go for that. should be interesting to see.
This is the perfect political environment to raise taxes on the super-rich while cutting middle & low-income taxes.
But of course they would never do that to themselves and their dear friends.
That is a big IF. We have some 17,000,000 un and under employed. We have 3-4 million flat out employed. There is no jobs program that is likely to cure that in the next 4-5 months.
correction—-flat-out unemployed
They’ll scramble anyway, and the ones who actually have a good track record with their districts might be able to hang on to their seats by the skin of their teeth. And maybe some of them will be able to get some pork to save them. (Yeah, I know pork is bad for the nation overall, but if your constituents are starving and you manage to bring some scraps home for them it might save your hide)
But I think most of the Dem reps are toast.
Jobs should have come first.
Yeah, instead it was Wall Street bonuses that came first.
From AP about an hour ago:
Obama’s nominee to lead TSA withdraws
He admits giving inconsistent answers to Congress over old reprimand
The house of cards collapses..jr.jr memories
Good. That really bothered me that he used government databases for personal purposes. Usually when working for a federal agency being caught doing so results in termination.
Peep said: “he does sum it up well other than admitting his own stupidity in supporting Obama orginally.”
But Mort doesn’t really get it. He says: “Obama’s ability to connect with the voters…”
No, he never connected with the voters – it was a marketing campaign and a fundraiser to buy the voters off. He never really did connect and after being elected – set about to fulfill the wishes of those who bought the new house and the puppy for him
when you don’t have a job, you don’t connect with a politician who spends his time focusing on everything else but getting you a job
He says: “Obama’s ability to connect with the voters…”
It should be: “Obama’s ability to connect with the voters…”
HRC was the one who connected; despite being that “uppity, entitled b@@@ch”.
My advice to the democrats: it is always a good idea to never mock, disrespect, ignore or disregard your voting constituents.
Beware the bite of the bitter knitters!
Amen! This life-long former DEM will never forget the stolen nomination, and all for a man who had no accomplishments of his own, never showed any leadership qualities during his one big feat–an election greased by big money and big media–and never once stood up for the democratic principle of honoring votes. He was all about winning, but just as the empty suit before him, winning for what higher purpose?
I believe the last time I posted on here I pointed out how completely inept Martha Coakley was. When Menino knew he could double cross her and support Capuano I knew she was in deep $h!t. I heard Menino blabbing on TV last nite about how it was important but I never heard or saw anything from them before the election and I would have heard.
One of the myths that needs to be discarded is that “elections are won in the center.” No they aren’t. They are won by pulling enough of the muddled middle to your side, a very different matter. The “center” is a place almost no one actually resides (it would be difficult to do so in any case as it is in constant motion). A third of the electorate leans Right, a third leans left, and most of the remainder are not at some mythical midpoint between the two but all over the map, can be won by either side, and tend to respond to those who offer populism (left or right versions) combined with a clear sense of where they are going.
Obama’s amorphous “hopey changey” never worked for them, and only the collapse of the economy and the Bush record prevented McCain from winning in the fall. But after a year of rehabiliting the GOP, Obama can hardly turn around and demonize them (nor will he). And survival of the Dems in Congress would depend on liberals breaking with Obama, a charge that would normally involve the CBC. But will the CBC seriously break with the “first black President” (as they certainly would in a similar situation with the “first woman President”)? And will other Dem liberals turn against Obama without the cover of the CBC? I wouldn’t hold my breath.
I think you have a good point there. That other third tho’ appears to be widening.
I heard this AM that Emanual may be moving out of the administration and Jarrett will take his place.
They are going to start moving the deck chairs…
I do not see how Jarrett is going to be a lot of help. O needs to get outside his dc and chitown bubbles. He needs a real policy wonk.
He needs a Hillary. Unfortunately for him she’s busy dealing with international issues and can’t handle domestic for him too
The donkey party is full of dumb asses.
When I think about why I used to like the Dem party and why I signed up, it was because the Dem party seemed to get things done that basically helped the common folks. It was not about grandiose schemes to “change” the nation. If you look at FDR and Truman—it was putting in place policy that moved us closer and closer to a level playing field as a nation. That was true with JFK, LBJ and above all the Clintons. The O crowd seems all wrapped up in big power and big money—the way 0 uses AF One and all the trappings of the WH are sort of a microcosm of this culture of royal privilege. I think the American public really feels this and resents it deeply; they expect a potus to be their man; they do not belong to him/her.
Me too. I thought Dems looked out for the little guy.
Turned out I was wrong. It was just Clinton that did that, and the DC Dems hated him for it.
An effective president needs to have a resume that shows he is already an effective politician in order to make the alliances necessary to get an agenda passed. Think masterful, such as LBJ and Bill Clinton. Men who understand how politics work, and who have goals greater than their own image. Bill Clinton would hover outside the legislative hall in Little Rock at all hours, as close as an executive was allowed, to follow all of the inner intrigue of a vote. Lyndon Johnson arm wrested and played dirty to win the good fight.
Obama had no such resume, his legislative “accomplishments,” such as they were were the work of hard-working legislators Emil Jones, Jr. forced to pass on to Obama to carry over the finish line. Hope + Change (TM) is simply Axelrod’s rerun of the Deval Patrick campaign. It didn’t define Obama even amorphously.
I still can’t get Obots to cite any accomplishment other than getting “elected” (and we know the Republican Party wasn’t really behind wildcard McCain who can’t be bought easily).
Now I ask them to name accomplishments during his term as presidency and can’t get any answer.
Again, the Right Wing is deliberately misrepresenting what happened last night. It is not a radical shift to the left that doomed the Dems last night. It is a lack any real reform that doomed them.
MASS is the bluest of the blue states and we (liberals: advocates for universal helath care) did not show up to protect Obamas veto proof majority. We were not fooled by the faux reform. It so happens that independents weren’t fooled either, but it was liberals wising up that made the difference. Dems don’t need anybody’s help to elect a Senator in MASS.
If Obama is suckered by right wing propaganda and gets MORE wishy-washy and MORE accommodating to the right then he is an even bigger idiot than I ever thought.
He has already rolled over and begged for them. I shudder to think what his next trick to gain conservative apporval will be.
Well the right is going to put forth the idea that it was a move to the right last night because they are the ones that won and winners write the history. So no surprise in that. But if you listen to some of the right they are also the ones who say that the Republican party wins when they are true to their conservative principles and they lose when they make moves to the left.
The Dems need to take a lesson from this I think: they win when they are true to more liberal/progressive principles; they lose when they move to the right. When voters want a Republican, let them find one in the Republican party, don’t build them in the Democratic party.
If the Republicans are smart they will campaign on oversight and accountability and jobs jobs jobs.
Imagine for a moment that o were the politician that was really the genius and transformational leader of the hype. He would have HRC as his VP; he would have given her the portfolios for hc and jobs. He would be in a very different place today.
Yeah, but that would have meant he was standing for something other than the appearance of success.
The fallout: Democrats rethinking health care bill
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31693.html
I wonder if Jon Favreau scripted these obviously crafted lame excuse lines for them:
Democrats seek back footing after epic Mass. loss
At the White House, advisers downplayed the notion that the vote was an indictment against health care reform. Still, senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said in an interview with MSNBC that officials will “take into account” what voters said Tuesday. He added, “It’s not an option simply to walk away from a problem that’s only going to get worse.”
Administration officials acknowledged that voter anger was intense but said it wasn’t so much with Obama as with Washington’s failures in general and with the moribund economy.
“There are messages here. We hear those messages,” Axelrod said. “There is a general sense of discontent about the economy. And there is a general sense of discontent about this town. That’s why we were elected.”
Added Press Secretary Robert Gibbs: “There’s a tremendous amount of anger and frustration about where people are economically … I think that’s what’s ultimately going to define the coming political battles.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_massachusetts_senate
Dems’ Massachusetts loss clouds Pelosi’s future
Democrats are “in big trouble,” said Princeton University political scientist Julian Zelizer. “This year has been hard enough, but to go under 60 votes in the Senate (by losing the Massachusetts seat) is going to pretty much saw everything off. It’s either going to be about dramatic compromises with moderate Democrats or just total obstruction and go into 2010 with nothing other than health care if they’re lucky.”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/20/MNGO1BJRB2.DTL
This gets funnier by the hour. If the Republicans can pick up 40 House seats in November (now a genuine possibility), they take control. Impeachment, anyone?
Nothing would make me happier than to see Axis Sally Pelosi and Lord Haw Haw Reid gone.
As the first female speaker of the house she had a chance to make historic changes for women. Instead she screwed women over big time.
As Senate Majority Leader he had a chance to really make this country a better place. He did not do so.
So Long , Farewell , Good Bye to both asap.
WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS
PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALIST AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE
Oh Gag! Check out the second paragraph!
Barack Obama’s Year in Review
By Todd S. Purdum
The first 365 days are a notoriously bad predictor for presidential success, but there’s no escaping the fact that they’ve been brutal. Surveying the wreckage of “Yes We Can” promise, the author argues that it’s still far too early to count Obama out.
Sure, Obama has made his share of mistakes, rookie and otherwise. But don’t count him out—not just yet. For the fault, dear readers, lies not in our stars, nor even in our rock-star president, but in ourselves: in our impatience, our intemperance, our lack of perspective, our susceptibility to the easy untruth and the quick fix. Barack Obama only rarely falls victim to any of these vices, and, with luck, he may yet save us from ourselves.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/01/purdum-on-obama-201001
We are not worthy! We are not worthy!
Wait! Then we are not the ones we were waiting for?
There is NO WAY the king is running around town without any clothes on. There is a there, there.
That sounds like a nomination for sainthood, not politics.
This is the year of the Soccer World Championship – I guess it is apt to say that the electorate showed the Big O the red card – shame he is not send to the showers.
He probably wished he’d never seen the WH from inside and sticked to watching re-run of the West Wing!
I don’t think he even has the decency to be ashamed.
He’s happy to be in the WH and getting money from all sides and golfing in Hawaii. It’s good to be king/messiah/president.
besides he loves flying all around in that big plane
The trouble is that we elected the words of Jon Favreau. Who knew that Obama wouldn’t be any more effective than his 20-something speechwriter at creating more than “just words.”
Yepper.