AP just called it for Brown. WTF Massachusetts?!?

:(

WTF indeed. It's hard to believe.

depressing. People seem to forget so fast.

copied from my fb:

believes that to get better, you first have to hit rock bottom. So congratulations MA on electing Scott Brown and continuing our long slide to recovery! We shall overcome, but not until the divide between rich and poor becomes enough that the poor start taking from the rich by violence. But hey, low taxes!

36 months from now, a former Cosmo centerfold may be sworn in as the next President of the United States.

Remember, you heard it here first.

In other news, it has been confirmed that shit really does happen.

Good thing I'm already on blood pressure meds.

I don't know, Joe. I don't think Burt Reynolds is up to the job, frankly.

Heeeeeeey!
≡ Click to see image ≡

People seem to forget so fast.
Exactly. It's infuriating.

Waitaminnit! We've got a 6550 here? High fives, my beam-power pal!

The linked map is not at all what I expected. Why is western Massachusetts so blue?

SRSLY?

Damn! I just realized that anyone with insight on Mass's overall state politics is probably in bed.

Why is western Massachusetts so blue?

It's like South Vermont. Rural hippies. Seven Sisters colleges. Northampton. Amherst. Etc.

(posted from in bed. you're welcome.)

Western Mass is like Berkeley, CA but with cows.

Palin/Brown 2012.

Ah, got it! Thanks, Eideteker. Nicely worded, octothorpe.

I have a bunch of family out in the Amherst/Northampton area, I'm usually there for Xmas. Nice area.

Soon there will be 2 more yellow-dog Democrats living in Mass. We'll do what we can.

I'm interested to see what the fallout is vis-a-vis healthcare. I'm not a big fan of the dumbed-down plan that was on the table anyway. If this sent everyone back to the drawing board, that wouldn't be the most terrible thing in the world, IMO. Not very long it was clear that popular sentiment was running very high in favor of a healthcare plan with a public option - really very high - the vocal opposition was a minority. Some well-placed rhetoric could shift the arrow back a little bit.

Republican commentators today were talking about security, security, security as being what put Brown into office. I don't really buy the line that "americans are worried about security." No more worried than we have been for the past ten years - recognizing that we have an ongoing, chronic problem with upstart terrorists and trying to figure out how to deal with it. Some people feel insecure and that makes them focus on security as a solution, but I think their feelings of insecurity really stem from other threats - particularly those of struggling more and more to keep your head above water in an economic system that is gradually draining the middle class and downright punishing the working class and poor. That makes anyone feel on edge, and it's kind of easy to mislocate the cause of general bad feeling about The Way Things Are as originating from some would-be incompetent terrorist's underpants, or some shady schlub in Gauntanamo and whether he's being punished hard enough while being held without due process of law.

It's the economy, stupid, all over again. I'm starting to think more and more that a meaty federal jobs program would be a very, very smart move on Obama's part.

I cannot find the quote now, but I went to bed cursing after reading that, according to Brown, his first call was to Vicki Kennedy, and he told her something like he'll attempt to honour Kennedy's legacy, etc etc.

This from a man whose entire campaign was founded on SHITTING on Kennedy's life work, health care overhaul. The first thing he will do is go in and piss on Kennedy's very chair, and he's calling his widow and denying that he's rubbing it in?

Coakley shot herself in the foot, several times. She refused a television debate. When asked about Brown's sudden surge and what she could be doing to regain lost ground, she replied, "What am I supposed to do, stand out in the cold and rain and shake people's hands?" Um, yes, that's what politicians do.

Coakley shot herself in the foot

Yea, I think those gaffs lost her the election, too.

yeah, sounds like she projected entitlement.

Well health care reform, even in its watered down form, is worth fighting for, and very defendable, based on facts. It's maddening that (at least in my estimation) Fox News has apparently turned the majority against it.

Plus, yeah, what a bonehead tone-deaf candidate.

Campaigning works, I'm not sure how Coakley didn't understand that. People want to see you before they vote for you. The congressional campaign that I worked on in '06 taught that to me. The candidate that I worked for put in 16 hour days for six months campaigning. He was at every single church pancake breakfast, firehall community meeting, bingo night, kids soccer game, neighborhood carnival in the district. I'm pretty sure that he shook hands with a double digit percentage of the voter. That's how you get elected.

I'm not really a huge democrat, but the catastrophic effects of republican rule (from Reagan on pretty much) really shows that they are far more then just the lesser of two evils. Politics here is set up to favor the two party system (the very same two parties would have to change the system to allow for viable third parties; good luck with that) so really the only way to change things in a favorable way is to work within one of the parties. Think of how the republican's have become so far to the right and become socially conservative beyond the original notions of the party. So all that being said if health care reform fails it will be disastrous for the democrats. I mean 1994 isn't a direct parallel but damn it should provide a pretty clear example. If they pass health care and then campaign on on its good points (insuring the uninsured, eliminating being denied for preexisting coverage etc) the rest will be mostly forgotten. A big deal is made of the mandate which in ways I'm against (I mean you need it as that is how insurance works, but they really needed a decisive mechanism to get costs down) but the fact remains for most people it won't mean anything as they either get insurance from work or they'll qualify for the subsidized insurance.

So anyway the house should pass the senate bill and then amend it and the senate should use reconciliation to pass those amendments. This will allow for a victory, some needed reform and standing up to obstructionist republicans. Then turn most of the effort to jobs and the economy. The republican brand is still a disaster if they democrats are shown to be working the the republicans as merely obstructionist that will help with the elections. And really it is pathetic that American's can't recall what an absolute disaster the Bush regime was with his Republican congress.

Oh I should add that all my reading today looks like the democrats are going to fuck this up. Basically all the reasoned analysis is about what I wrote above. But we have Barney Frank giving up, we have various moderates (Beyh,Webb et al) more or less saying that adding one additional republican to their minority means they should be reached out to (bipartisanship never seems to be much of a priority on the other side) and now Obama saying to wait on Brown being seated before continuing on Health Care Reform. I mean why? it just seems weak to me. The senate has passed it, the house should do the same and we move on.

Hey, Brown could turn out to be a huge thorn in the Republicans' ass. Stranger things have happened.

If he wants to get reelected in 2012 he'll have to be pretty liberal (for a republican) but the whole theory of the party right now is lockstep obstructionism. Maybe he'll pivot a bit as the election gets closer. A lot depends on what the republicans think this means. I bet it emboldens the purity crowd...

Heh, is there a sell-by date before he can switch parties?

Ok, I'm confused. Democracy for America sent me an email saying that Brown voters want Democrats to be bolder? So they voted in a Republican?

HuffPo picked it up right away, but I'm not seeing this anywhere else.

I just heard something similar on NPR, lysdexic. Brown is actually pro-healthcare reform, having helped enact the mandatory coverage rule in Massachusetts. Of course, he has some Republican (pro-privatized) ways of going about that. But apparently a lot of his voters were also Obama voters in the last election who still support OBama, but think Brown was more of a go-getter. Or something.

Our biggest problem is not ideology, the two-party system, or anything like htat. Our biggest problem is that the electorate is so fucking stupid.