Well, what did you expect? The best analysis I’ve read so far is from John Aravosis–
Massachusetts, that kept Ted Kennedy in office for decades because he promised to provide affordable health care to every American, thinks President Obama is going too far by passing legislation that is, at best, half a loaf of what Kennedy had been proposing. Got that?
What other “far left” agenda could Bayh be talking about? Gay rights perhaps? First off, not much of an agenda in this White House, but in any case, we’re to believe that liberal views on social issues are ticking off a state that was the first in the country to have gay marriage? Seriously? How about abortion – Kennedy was pro-choice, never hurt him, and in any case, Obama is hardly God’s gift to choicers.
So it’s not health care reform or social issues, maybe it’s economic issues. Was it the Wall Street bailout? Not very liberal there. Maybe defense issues. Perhaps the mini-surge of additional troops in Afghanistan? Again, no liberal to be found.
So what exactly is Evan Bayh talking about when he says that our government has lurched too far to the left of Massachusetts? What part of President Obama’s agenda wasn’t Massachusetts familiar with when they voted for him over John McCain last November by double digits? And the irony is that Obama has never moved farther to the left in office than he promised on the campaign trail — he’s only moved to the right.
GOP’s Brown wins Mass. Senate seat in epic upset
By GLEN JOHNSON and LIZ “Sprinkles” SIDOTI, Associated Press Writers
1 min ago
BOSTON – In an epic upset in liberal Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown rode a wave of voter anger to defeat Democrat Martha Coakley in a U.S. Senate election Tuesday that left President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in doubt and marred the end of his first year in office.
The loss by the once-favored Coakley for the seat that the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy held for nearly half a century signaled big political problems for the president’s party this fall when House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates are on the ballot nationwide.
More immediately, Brown will become the 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate, which could allow the GOP to block the president’s health care legislation and the rest of Obama’s agenda. Democrats needed Coakley to win for a 60th vote to thwart Republican filibusters.
I’d also like to encourage you to show some ♥ to Michael Gass’ take on this development.
Joy B. also has a piece.
From Peter Daou (via Aravosis)-
Democratic leaders and strategists, privately disdainful of the netroots, underestimated the influence of progressive bloggers.
Nothing should have been a bigger red flag to the new administration than the growing complaints by established progressive bloggers that Democrats were veering off track on the stimulus, the health care bill, civil liberties, gay rights, and more. But scoffing at the netroots is second nature in many quarters of the political establishment, even though they laid the groundwork for Obama’s victory. The single biggest reason Obama’s hope bubble burst is because of the unintended convergence of left and right opinion-making. The cauldron of opinion that churns incessantly on blogs, Twitter, social networks, and in the elite media generates the storylines that filter across the national and local press, providing the fodder for public opinion. Stalwarts of the left, dedicated to principles not personalities, hammered the administration; couple that with the partisan criticisms from conservatives and libertarians, and the net effect was to alter conventional wisdom and undercut Obama’s image and message.
My emphasis.
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as to have moved to the left of massachusetts. we will be reading a lot of crazy shit about this election for weeks to come.
Can you hear us now?
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not to pat myself on the back too much, but the concession call was at 9:13.
15 minutes to press is not so shabby for this Baltimore Herald critic.
momentum in the country for change, new president whose party controls both houses of Congress, and Obama White House manages to piss it all away in the greatest display of political suicide almost ever seen! Emmmanul & Company disappoint their “base” on practically every issue for a solid year and they expected what to happen in the electorate as a whole? This is a pending tsunami for the Democrats in November. This will blowup big-time between Dems in congress and the White House. This will be pyrotechnics!
It’s a glorious Tuesday night!
There is going to be a mountain of bs about this election and why Brown won and Coakley lost.
Maybe the answer is simple. Maybe it’s just that Coakley was a terrible candidate from the start and that she and her team didn’t do any of the basic tasks that are required to get elected. Shoe leather. Shaking hands. Door to door. Inspiration. The basic, old fashioned stuff. This shouldn’t have been a surprise. And she’s not the first terrible candidate from Massachusetts who couldn’t master basic electoral politics. There’s always Dukakis and Kerry to compare her to. I’m going to bed.
visit Daily Kos…
I really wish I had the strength.
I wonder what ‘blackwaterdog’ or ‘joanmar’ are thinking right now…
1975 to 2009
NOT ONE fascist senate count over 55
and, what is even goddam worse, the dem count of senators NEVER went below 41
how come the fascist onslaught has been so successful?
1. they’re staggeringly excellent liars. um, when you’re goal in life is to take the bottom 99% and turn them into doormats, catchfarts, asswipes, bootlickers, serfs and cannon fodder, YOU HAVE TO BE AN EXCELLENT LIAR,
2. the politically pathetic sacks of shit, sell outs, or a mix of each, who are sucking up space as ‘leaders’ on ‘our’ side,
3. us peeeee-ons for selecting sacks of shit and sell outs as ‘leaders’.
this is NOT ’80, ’84, ’88, ’94, ’98, ’00, ’02, ’04,
or 2006 when impeachment came off the table,
or 2008 when those f’king scum rahm & geithner started derailing the change people not only Hoped For, but the change people EXPECTED.
this HUGE turnout and coakley loses to a flat earther …
go ahead and blame the lefties and the dirty fucking hippies, OR
start working for the bottom 85% of us, you corrupt assholes.
rmm.
why do I even try….? (never mind)
I thought Jane made some good points at her place.
Nora (msnbc) just said there might be a ten day delay for the MA SoS to authorize the new guy, so Dems in Congress have ten days to pass HCR…? Oh joy.
I confess, Ive paid all this very little attention. Unplugged a while ago.
or just another circular firing squad? Who gives a fuck?
g.
Here is the original interview on abcnews.com- keep in mind, ABC is just one step above Faux Fox in right wing propaganda.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theno…
Keep in mind that sleazy, triangulating Senator Bayh doesn’t mention that his wife, Susan, is also known as Mrs. Wellpointe.
Bayh’s ditty is merely codespeak for “Now I can get more lobbyist donations from the health insurance industry, and more sweet deals on stock options for my wife.” He couldn’t even wait for the final vote tally before lining up for some more pork. Bayh is from the Indiana mid western flyover zone. Most of these venal little pork rind munchers are from states with relatively tiny populations (Carper/Delaware, Nelson/ Nebraska, Baucus/ Montana, Lincoln/Arkansas), not much in the way of natural resources, and very clever Senators who’ve learned how to blackmail for more money from the Defense contractors and Oil and Pharma industries. Landrieu is in an Oil State, which is why she was difficult, they have to buy her vote with massive amounts of DNC money. Lieberman/Conn. you would expect to be this way because of Connecticut being home to large insurance companies.
He (Bayh) ignores that the reasons the Republican Teabag message is so successful is that the Republican Teabags carefully targeted senior citizens, and scared the crap out of them that this bill was going to cut off all their government paid for Medicare health care.
The wealthy will, when given any opportunity to vote for a sure “no” vote in Congress or the Senate that might raise their taxes, merely vote for that sure “no” vote they found in Scotty Centerfold. And Scotty Centerfold will go and vote “no” on everything (except defense appropriations bills) and everybody in Massachusetts will heave a giant sigh of relief that other people are paying for that little mid eastern mercenary war continuing.
Massachusetts already has RomneyCare, so why in the world would they want to pay more taxes for somebody else’s health care, that is how it was portrayed.
The American PEOPLE are wanting business regulation, and are way, way to the “left” of the Senate, aka the House of Lords. Bayh mentions NJ while neglecting to mention that the Dem candidate there was the fatality of the Banking Bailout and his associations with Wall Street. Bayh talks about the failure of the Democratic governor candidate in the VA race- while neglecting to mention he was running on being AGAINST the public option in the health care bill. Why vote for a phony Republican- Lite Vichy Dem, when you can have the real thing, if the only thing you care about is a steady “no” vote on taxes?
And why are they against the taxes ? Again, they’re perceived as being put on people who will derive NO BENEFIT from them and are already hurting.
This is what Triangulation gets you.
Message Fail, DLC. Message MAJOR FAIL, you were told, you didn’t listen that you couldn’t hike taxes on the middle/working class without either the Medicare buy in or the strong Public Option, plus making people WAIT YEARS for it to happen, and you didn’t care.
… that jeffroby’s plan, Full Court Press, may be more prescient than even he thought.
The voters are literally crying out for a choice.
People are hurting bad.
absurd. His act was so awful that even the most liberal state in the nation got up and left. The stench of betrayal was just too thick. Barack and the boys are just plain hustlers: Promise them everything and give them the finger just doesn’t seem to fly. Obama and crew have f***d everything up real good. And Orange, what a pathetic joke.
When you’re that friggin dumb that you didn’t know what Americans wanted with an electoral landslide, then there’s no hope for this team. The country was waiting for a move to the LEFT, and this Buffoon went RIGHT. He should have stuck to basketball pick up in Chicago, where he belongs.
has got to be this one. Fight! Fight! Fight!
John Kerry was standing behind her on crutches.
Pretty much says it all right there.
Having a Dem in the White House, 60 in the Senate and a large majority in the House, also comes with responsibilities and expecations by those who voted for them. But, alas, they cannot and will not displease their corporate masters, no matter what the political cost (after all there are always lucrative lobbying and corporate board positions for those who lose their next election). It is far easier for Dems to act in a manner that might appeal to their base when they don’t have enough votes to matter.
In effect, here is the message from the Dems to the rank and file when they don’t own the Oval Office in addition to commanding majorities in both houses:
“We would effect change that benefits the people if we could.”
And when they do own the Oval Office and commanding majorities in both houses:
“We could effect change that benefits the people if we would.”