Massachusetts Senate Race

[JoeRedskin]

Originally Posted by GMScud

Oh for sure. I got several good laughs off of MSNBC last night.

Missed it... what was the Most Socialist Network BroadCast saying?

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by JoeRedskin

Missed it... what was the Most Socialist Network BroadCast saying?

Blaming it on the stupid voters and everyone else but Obama's agenda. Actually one guy (forgot his name) on the show used good common sense and talked about the Obama factor. The guys over my house wondered why I put it on MSNBC but after they started watching and laughing they figured out why.

[12thMan]

Here's my take on last night's election and where we might be headed.

First of all, I'm leaning with some of my Republican brothers about Coakley as a candidate. A female colleague was trying to write this lost off as a matter of gender bias. She didn't seem to get why people were so up in arms about Coakley confusing Curt Schilling as a Yankee fan. I told her the sports gaffe was totally relevant in this situation and shouldn't be dismissed as some gender bias. It was further confirmation in the minds of voters that Coakley was disconnected; a metaphor for how out of touch she was with the working class voters in Massachusetts. It simply reinforced the narrative that Coakley ran a campaign that operated as if it was privileged from the start and didn't have to invest in the daily grind of shaking hands and asking for votes. The results speak for themselves.

In terms of the larger picture, I think the message is clear but neither party should get too full of themselves. Republicans shouldn't be waiving the checkered flag and Democrats shouldn't be waving the white flag. People aren't as interested in party affliation as they are who's listening to them. And I think for pols to frame this any other way might be a tactical error. I like how Scott Brown is playing his victory from last night. He's come right out and said this isn't a referendum on President Obama. Even if it is, even if many of those voters are pissed at the president right now, it's a savvy move on Brown's part to play it the other way. It will give him more cred when he does have a legitimate gripe with the president's policies. That's the strategy that will work, in my opinion. On a side note, I think Mitt Romney was indirectly the biggest benefactor from last night's upset. If a Republican can win a senate seat held by a Democrat for decades, surely they can carry the state in a national election. Or conventional wisdom would go.

It's going to be uphill for Democrats from here on out; they have to adjust the sails. The winds are blowing in a different direction. Healthcare can still pass, but it's going to have to be scaled down and maybe done in increments. Who the hell knows really. The only saving grace for the party at large and the White House as we/I look forward to 2012, is that nobody is better at retail politics than Barack Obama. Not one Republican, not one Democrat. So when the time comes to campaign again, he's the best in the business. Lot's of work to get done between now and then though.

[Monkeydad]

I bet Olberman will be raging about "teabaggers" tonight...not that I'll tune in.

If the GOP are "teabaggers", according to him, the President and Democrats just became the "tea-bagees".

Only liberals could take something as pure as a Revolution to get public officials to listen to the people and twist it into perversion like that.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by Buster

I bet Olberman will be raging about "teabaggers" tonight...not that I'll tune in.

If the GOP are "teabaggers", according to him, the President and Democrats just became the "tea-bagees".

Only liberals could take something as pure as a Revolution to get public officials to listen to the people and twist it into perversion like that.

I heard the teabagger word used more then once last night but I laughed at them so hard last night my side won't take laughing that hard two nights in a row. I bet there is more then a handful of Dems who voted for HC reform who probably glad that he won to bail them out.

[dmek25]

Originally Posted by firstdown

Blaming it on the stupid voters and everyone else but Obama's agenda. Actually one guy (forgot his name) on the show used good common sense and talked about the Obama factor. The guys over my house wondered why I put it on MSNBC but after they started watching and laughing they figured out why.

any chance that the better candidate won? or are the Republicans doing what they had claimed the Dem's have done over the last 8 years, and just blame the sitting President? i know when i vote, i always choose, IMO, the most qualified person

[GMScud]

I think it's just as much about how poor of a candidate Coakley was as it is how more and more registered Dems are tired of this agenda. I've even heard that some Dems are responding to health care bill opposition by saying it just hasn't been explained to the people well enough. Meh. Orrrrrrr, could it be they just don't like the bill? Good old progressives. They suffer from Brian Billick Syndrome. They always know best.

[12thMan]

Here's the polling data.


MoveOn.org Political Action: Democracy in Action

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

Here's my take on last night's election and where we might be headed.

First of all, I'm leaning with some of my Republican brothers about Coakley as a candidate. A female colleague was trying to write this lost off as a matter of gender bias. She didn't seem to get why people were so up in arms about Coakley confusing Curt Schilling as a Yankee fan. I told her the sports gaffe was totally relevant in this situation and shouldn't be dismissed as some gender bias. It was further confirmation in the minds of voters that Coakley was disconnected; a metaphor for how out of touch she was with the working class voters in Massachusetts. It simply reinforced the narrative that Coakley ran a campaign that operated as if it was privileged from the start and didn't have to invest in the daily grind of shaking hands and asking for votes. The results speak for themselves.

In terms of the larger picture, I think the message is clear but neither party should get too full of themselves. Republicans shouldn't be waiving the checkered flag and Democrats shouldn't be waving the white flag. People aren't as interested in party affliation as they are who's listening to them. And I think for pols to frame this any other way might be a tactical error. I like how Scott Brown is playing his victory from last night. He's come right out and said this isn't a referendum on President Obama. Even if it is, even if many of those voters are pissed at the president right now, it's a savvy move on Brown's part to play it the other way. It will give him more cred when he does have a legitimate gripe with the president's policies. That's the strategy that will work, in my opinion. On a side note, I think Mitt Romney was indirectly the biggest benefactor from last night's upset. If a Republican can win a senate seat held by a Democrat for decades, surely they can carry the state in a national election. Or conventional wisdom would go.

It's going to be uphill for Democrats from here on out; they have to adjust the sails. The winds are blowing in a different direction. Healthcare can still pass, but it's going to have to be scaled down and maybe done in increments. Who the hell knows really. The only saving grace for the party at large and the White House as we/I look forward to 2012, is that nobody is better at retail politics than Barack Obama. Not one Republican, not one Democrat. So when the time comes to campaign again, he's the best in the business. Lot's of work to get done between now and then though.

I'd say that true to a point but now that all eye's are on Obama and what he has or has not done it will make it much tougher in 2012. In the past election most people knew very little about him and they also seemed to ignore what little time he had in office and his voting record. He can no longer hide and will now have to answer more questions.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

Here's the polling data.


MoveOn.org Political Action: Democracy in Action

I would not use any poll from move on.

[firstdown]

Funny last night I saw an interview with Obama and he actually blamed this in part on Bush. The funny thing was right as the short interview came on I told my wife I bet he blames Bush. Sure enough not one minute into the interview he did.

[GMScud]

Originally Posted by firstdown

Funny last night I saw an interview with Obama and he actually blamed this in part on Bush. The funny thing was right as the short interview came on I told my wife I bet he blames Bush. Sure enough not one minute into the interview he did.

I saw that. He said that people are angry and frustrated, and Scott Brown's win "isn't just about the past year, but about the previous 8 years." Really?? Ugh. So out of touch and arrogant. Seems to me that Mass had democratic senators during the Bush Administration. Still pointing fingers at W? That club shouldn't be in his bag anymore. That ship has sailed.

I'd like to see him pare back his agenda (which they are going to have to do with health care), and focus on the economy and job creation (in the private sector). In bi-partisan fashion too, please. Remember, no red America, no blue America, but the United States of America, right?

[DynamiteRave]

I was gonna post this in the Obamacare Thread but it was really paining me to see that thread bumped again.

But I can't seem to figure out points of the healthcare plan that people are against the most. I can understand the public option and the cost of the bill itself. I voted for the guy and I'm no fan of that either. In fact my support for him as a whole is kinda waining, but I digress.

But other than those 2 things, what else do people find ridiculous about the bill? I've searched around but everything is so damn expansive and technical, my poor little college brain can't handle it.

[Trample the Elderly]

This should be a wake up call to both parties. After the progressive Bushites took over the Republican party, it destroyed itself. The conservative / libertarians abandoned it in 2006 and again in 2008, or at least I and people I know did. Now the Democrats are doing the same thing. So it should come as no surprise that a Republican, who ran as an independant, won in Mass. Now that we kicked out the gutless Republicans, the lawless Democrats are next. It's a good day for independants, conservatives, and libertarians. These gang-bankster fascist are getting exposed and kicked out. It's too bad we can't imprison them.

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by dmek25

i know when i vote, i always choose, IMO, the most qualified person

So you voted for McCain then huh?