Brown a Repudiation of Insufficiently ‘Moderate’ Obama
Turns out that independent voters, a majority of the Bay State electorate and a crucial ingredient in Obama’s historic presidential win 14 months ago, abandoned him in droves. As in last November’s Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races, independents seemed disaffected that they’d voted in 2008 for a more moderate Obama than he turned out to be in 2009.
Well, at least Fred Smerlas will be happy. I’m so proud to be a Massachusetts native!
I should add this, however: we should all be counting our blessings that it isn’t Curt Schilling. I was smelling a narrow Schilling by-election victory, followed by the inevitable unstoppable Palin/Schilling ticket in 2012. It would have been awesome, with altar calls in the White House press room and Tim Lahaye as Treasury Secretary… well, who knows, it might still happen.
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It is almost hard to call this an upset imo. Obama is reaping what he sowed. Democrats are losing elections and will continue to do so. Don’t be surprised when Obama loses re-election….
This is change we can believe in….if by change you mean “meet the new boss, same as the old boss”.
If the Democratic party looks at voters being sick of a center-right democratic party taking them for granted and extrapolates the exact opposite of the truth from it, they deserve every fucking loss that’s coming to them, the right-wing shills.
I thought a senator would represent the state instead of the special interest of teabaggers. Curt would be a good running mate. Kurt Warner could win any election in MO.
Having grown up in MA and left just a few years ago for college in DC, this was a repudiation playing with intrenched interests, not a mandate for a “more moderate Obama”. This was about unseating the establishment. In healthcare that means he should have been more liberal (no deals for PHARMA straight single payer) in economics more trust busting (would that be more libertarian?).
It just blows me away to hear all these talking heads on TV try to explain away why the Dems lost.
To me, it is really simple. Obama and the Dems ran on change, and it’s been over a year now, and I would want to ask the Dems one question. What Bush policies have Obama and the Dems changed over the last year?
Barry Riholtz has taken to calling our president Barrack W. Obama and so have I.
Lily Ledbetter? A small increase in the minimum wage? A couple of nice speeches? Only one major military escalation?
That’s plenty to expect from a President who ran on change allied with a congressional supermajority, right? Right?
In response to another comment. See in context »The consensus seems to be Obama is not “moderate” enough; me and all my liberal friends are mad at Obama because he is not “left” enough. How can this intelligent guy be in such a lose-lose situation? The hard bigotry of high expectations???
Here’s the problem with “going moderate:” The economy is badly screwed up because of Right Wing policies, “going moderate” (which means to the harder-right on economics) means that the problems with the economy won’t be fixed.
Which means more Democratic losses in the short term (followed by Republican losses when their horrible policies also fail to fix the economy).
Meanwhile, economic, technological, military and political power will continue to move East. At some point, the U. S. will no longer be in control of its own destiny, if it even is now…
We’ll have to see if this BS is what the Dems swallow. They have an out, here – recognize the electoral disaster, take down Reid over this and the ‘Negro’ scandal, move Progressive and go forward OVER the GOP. 51 votes pass a bill and a Majority Leader willing to work for it can overcome a fillibuster (start by requiring an actual fillibuster). Start off by going single payer, which shows independence from the lobbyists AND provides a massive stimulus, making it far less expensive to employ Americans (except the people who work for health insurers, but that’s Karma). Use every parliamentary trick there is and get it passed by 51 (so they don’t need the Faux-Dems); employment improves, the left gets a major victory, approval ratings go up in time for November.
Or move ‘right’ and start sending out senators to suck off corporate lobbyists on the Capitol steps… I wonder which they’ll chose?
Amen, Uxma. The Dems idea of health care was to give the nation the same crummy plan that Massachusetts has. That Dems stupidly chose the Mass. plan instead of the much more popular and successful Medicare/single payer/public option model was stunning to me.
Forcing healthy 22 year olds to buy private health insurance was going to fix our health care system? Message to Obama and the Dems: we aren’t as gullible as you think we are.
Maybe I’m letting my personal views color my analysis, but here’s my take. Independents voted for Obama thinking he really meant what he said during his campaign. He’s been a huge disappointment to them and now those Obama voters are staring at a health care reform bill they consider a nightmare. Voting this Republican into the Senate was similar to a panicky phone call to the bank to cancel a check you wish you had not written.
I did not realize Obama was running for the Senate in Massachusetts.
When I saw this quote was from the LA Times, I immediately knew that it was crapped out by the intellectually dishonest Republican hack Andrew Malcolm, the guy who originated the Obama-bowed-to-Akihito meme. If you can bear to read that blog, it typifies Malcolm’s deceptions perfectly.
In today’s blog, Malcolm, or more likely an editor, did throw in, “Historically, a freshman president’s party loses congressional seats anyway in his first midterm elections,” seemingly grudgingly, as it is the penultimate sentence.
I don’t know why it surprises me that the formerly excellent LA Times now employs blog shit like Malcolm.
So here we are, with President Bait and Switch, blatant corruption in Washington, and the utter failure of the Democratic Party to adhere to their most basic tenets, which has led to this Massachusetts Surprise.
And the most bizarre aspect of this whole thing is that the GOP has been able to appear as a genuine opposition party. We saw McCain pushing for Glass-Steagall to be reinstated, we saw Darrel Issa trying to get emails from Scumbag Geithner to find out the truth about the AIG and cover-ups, we saw the Republicans questioning whether the mandate is constitutional, and we saw the rightwing blowback on the Medicare bribe of Nelson, among other things.
The Dems have indeed been arrogant pricks who thought they could get away with anything and that Obama’s fantastic branding could mask an absence of substantive and representative policy. They have had utter contempt for voters, and now, in their stupidity, they have handed the moral high ground to the Republicans!
And in sticking to the practice of making the democratic wing of their own party eat shit on every issue, they seem to have rapidly succeeded, in just a single year, to transform hope into “cynicism and finally into total and complete alienation,” as David Sirota suggests.
They need their own FAIL blog, the fucking jackasses.
Medicare bribe of Nelson
It’s not mediCARE, it’s mediCAID — the insurance that covers people on welfare (or those who are so poor they really don’t have enough mney coming in to buy insurance). Hmmm, pretty soon that could be most of us.
In response to another comment. See in context »This Brown/Coakley thing is a beautiful crystallization of the Democrats’ problems, in a nutshell.
As another blogger named Xoverboard has pointed out, Senator Kennedy was diagnosed with terminal, let me repeat that terminal, brain cancer, about eighteen months ago. He stopped attending the Senate something like eight months ago. They had all the time in the world, and yet they wait until the last minute to put forward this replacement candidate, Coakley, who could barely be bothered to campaign personally.
Why? Out of “respect” for Teddy? Well today it doesn’t seem very respectful, does it?
The real reason was not “respect”, but because the Democratic party apparatus, (the professional politicians as opposed to the rank-and-file), they are much more interested in protecting their old-boys’ club, safeguarding their own Washington privileges, than in their constituents’ issues which they supposedly represent. So the idea of replacing Senator Kennedy with somebody who was actually healthy enough to show up and vote for the things that Senator Kennedy actually wanted, was anathema to them. It left them paralyzed.
So what good are the Democrats?
We elect them to press our issues. In return, we are told that corporate-friendly cronyist monstrosities like the Health Care bill are the best we can expect, pragmatically, because real change is just too dawwwwn hawwwwwd. Awwwww, poor babies, politics is the art of the possible, we have to keep our powder dry, etc etc.
And then, after lecturing us about how we must sacrifice reform for pragmatism, they can’t even handle the pragmatic details, and something like this totally blindsides them.
How can anyone not see that this party is useless, after tonight? Who can deny that the best thing for the country would be if the Democratic Party disbanded and was replaced with a real opposition party? There is no way this country can move forward until that happens — only backward into the Idiocracy of rule by Sarah Palin and her ilk.
Mr. Daulton,
Amen brother Amen. My thoughts and frustration exactly.
In response to another comment. See in context »God, I hate to admit it, but I think you’re right about all of it.
In response to another comment. See in context »That part seems especially – chillingly – on the mark… after 8 (eight) excruciating, years of Bush neo-con fascist rule, Obama descends from Heaven to the rescue promising CHANGE, and the whole country is mesmerized; spellbound by this eloquent, multicultural outsider, and elects him in a landslide. You can hear the Kumbaya chanting at the inauguration.
And here we are a paltry 1 (one) , i repeat, ONE year later… and the pendulum is already swinging back into the eager arms of the venom-salivating Repubs?
i need to learn to speak Finnish… you have to speak their language before they will take you.
In response to another comment. See in context »what presumptuousinsect and especially thomas daulton said.
Any president just to the left of W was in for it: not liberal enough for lefties and not moderate (read: neo-con clone) for conservatives. Obama has accomplished a few things since being in office, but most of them are minor things. These things might sound good if W company hadn’t left our country in such a shithole. Credit card reform and the Lily Ledbetter Act are for real; things like health care reform only count if you’re desperate. Hiring Thomas Perez as Assistant Attorney for Civil Rights and reforming mandatory minimum sentencing are also on the right track, but not enough in the minds of those of us who want a real reversal of the neo-con legacy. There are actually more things, but again – all chump change in an atmosphere where gains are felt by making large, bold leaps forward.
RE Obama’s accomplishments- I’m reminded of the solar panels Carter had installed on the White House: all too easily removed by someone with an agenda.
In response to another comment. See in context »This whole concept of treating this election as a reflection of the national mood is frankly a pile of shit. Unfortunately, it’s so convenient and so easy to do that it’s going to accepted truth forever now.
The dems lost this election because they had the most useless candidate I’ve ever seen. She barely campaigned at all. She was asked why she wasn’t at Fenway park shaking hands and her reply was something like ‘What, in the cold? At night? Screw that!’. Then she was photographed standing by watching as some old coot fell over on the street next to her.
Admittedly that’s just what I saw on the Daily Show but if that’s true then it’s not difficult to understand why she lost.
Now, I’m not saying that the result *doesn’t* reflect the mood of the nation, but if it does it’s just an accident. Mass already has it’s own public healthcare system so that debacle is unlikely to influence many voters. The idea that Obama wasn’t moderate enough, i.e. too leftist, is hilariously false when compared to his actual actions as president. I can’t remember a Democrat president who sat further to the right and did more do appease the lunatics on the other side.
The only thing Obama has done that was redolent of leftist philosophy was spend a ton of money, but that’s down to the situation at the time. If he had walked in after Clinton, with a budget surplus and no wars, I get the feeling he would have spent money on getting healthcare done but not much else.
But, the national media right-wing pundit class have congealed into a single sweaty greasy organism in a frenzy of mutual masturbation (and cheered on by many a democrat too) that this ‘watershed’ event has occured because the country realised that Obama is leading them straight to a communist hell.
It’s a joke, and the sad part is that every single media outlet I’ve seen today has accepted this nonsense as self-evident truth and has run with it.
The really sad part is that if the PR campaign is starting now with this result as it’s foundation, all these predictions that it’s the beginning of the end may very well come true.
I do agree that Obama only has himself to blame. He should never have allowed this idiot woman to run for the seat without doing any work, he should have had experienced campaign runners there for the last 4 months. A shrewd team could have made Scott Brown look like a joke with his cosmo centrefolds.
There’s a bunch of good reasons why the democrat voters should flip Obama the Bird, he’s let down all liberals. But you can’t do that by voting for a fucking republican, you have to vote in more liberal independents. Was there even a third choice in this race?
The fundamental truth of this is that the Dems fucked it up badly, so regardless of the actual reason why the seat was lost, it was theirs to lose and they deserve all the scorn they get.
“Was there even a third choice in this race?”
I know some Libertarians who gladly touted how their candidate in this was getting “Please Quit Now!!” phone calls from Brown and Stupid Lazy Bitch (I can’t remember how to spell her name so I’ll go with this) and how he was making them look silly with their comments and blah blah blah. And then he promptly got 2% of the vote and showed how insignificant he really was. Amusing to no end.
In response to another comment. See in context »I don’t know where you grew up, Matt, but my adolescence was spent in “the most progressive state in the nation,” and I never got it. My town was affluent, beautifully maintained, historically significant, cultured…and politically retarded. The idea that the rest of the country idolized and/or despised us for our high ideals was laughable to me at age sixteen; it’s even more laughable now.
I grew up in exactly the same town! I was in Hingham. Beautiful place. You know there was even an ordinance against colored Christmas lights? White candlelight in the windows were acceptable.
In response to another comment. See in context »Ha. Andover had all kinds of stuff like that, too. They got the overly-controlling part of European Socialism, but they neglected to make up for it with all the good things Europeans get from their government in exchange for following those regulations. In a town where everybody was either a Raytheon weapons contractor or worked for the IRS (shuffling taxpayer money to the former group), “progressive” wasn’t a description that sprang to mind. In retrospect, it was basically the Virginia suburbs with crappy weather.
In response to another comment. See in context »The rich people in Andover are the dickish kind of rich people. Not like the people in Carlisle, Lexington, and Concord, who are loaded, but have a greater sense of social responsibility, and thus, went Democratic last night, even as white trash towns like Tyngsboro and Fitchburg voted for Scott Brown to bend them over the next few years.
“Thank you sir, may I have another?”
In response to another comment. See in context »I’m from Bedrock and we’re overrun by troglodytes.
In response to another comment. See in context »what elitist BS!
Attitudes like yours are the very reason “white trash” (racist label) vote for fake populists like Brown. Look at Barney Frank – how the hell does a gay Jew liberal get huge majorities in “white trash” towns like Norton and Raynham (60+%)? He goes to those towns, listens to the trash, and explains how he can better represent them than the Republican candidate.
I’ll bet Coakley spent more time in Lexington, Concord, and Carlisle celebrating her win than she did pressing the flesh in Saugus, Marlboro, or Chicopee.
In response to another comment. See in context »I second your emotion regarding the presumptuous insect and daulton comments.
I hate to keep jumping back and forth between Hans Christian Andersen and Aesop, but isn’t there some story about a man, a boy, and a donkey with the moral “strive to please all, and you will please none”?
Given the awesome, overwhelming scope of a Unitary Executive’s responsibilities, it behooves one not to criticize lightly.
But it’s simply the appalling truth that the Obama administration has kept the public at arm’s length while Staying the Course by shoring up and stoking the Bush security state, further reorienting the DOJ to accommodate and complement the extra-constitutional security mission, and kowtowing to generals, tycoons, and banksters.
What else can good-hearted, decent people be BUT disillusioned and resentful?
The idiot pundits proclaiming this as a protest to Obama’s “overreach” are just morons and deserve to be ignored by anyone with half a brain. In a just world, bankers would wipe out their savings, after which they’d be fired and have to stand in today’s unemployment lines.
The lesson Obama *should* take from this is that people are not fooled by Obama throwing out platitudes like “I didn’t run for President to please fat-cat bankers” and then appointing people like Tim Geithner of Goldman Sachs to Treasury, keeping Ben Bernanke around, and having people who caused the economic pain for so many people like Larry Summers and Robert Rubin as his economic advisors. And are not fooled when he does nothing but mouth platitudes, or makes a scene of phoning a bank to tell them not to buy a plane, as the largest round of banking bonuses is handed out the year after they did the financial equivalent of blowing up the world. And or not fooled when he gives a speech to Wall Street politely requesting them not to be so greedy, and that they don’t need to wait for him to enact legislation to change their behaviour. And are not fooled when all the popular elements of reform like a public insurance option are gutted out of the health care reform bill in order to “pass something” and call it a win, and then lie that you “never campaigned on a public option” (for someone who ran such a new-media campaign, it’s pretty brazen to act like in 2010, people don’t have the YouTubes!). Health care reform with the public insurance option was popular with 60% of people – the health insurance industry giveaway without it is popular with about 30% of people. And people are not fooled when he generally doesn’t enact anything meaningful because he is so comfortable in his bubble and so weak and “above the fray” of the den of rats that is Congress that he bows and scrapes to the 60th corrupt, brainless, and paid-for Senator like Ben Nelson or Joe fucking Lieberman for absolutely anything and everything.
I think Obama and his circle really believed that if he just talked the talk, and acted more empathetic in his photo-ops, no one would notice they were carrying on with the contempt Bush and Republicans had for the general public. But people -did- notice, and people who they counted on before to volunteer and vote for them because “they have no one else to vote for” are sick and tired of playing that game – not seeing a meaningful difference between the parties, they didn’t play the game this time and either sat out or expressed their disgust.
Whether he *will* take that lesson remains to be seen. He seems incredibly tone-deaf to me, and the corporate donors to the Democratic Party have no interest in that message getting through. Whether he’ll even feel the inclination to act on that lesson if it actually -does- sink in is also highly questionable.
I came of voting age just a little before 2000, and could never really understand why people would “waste” a vote on someone like Nader. And although I was a supporter of Kucinich in 2004, once he was out, favoring Kerry made sense to me. But I’d never really had a real opportunity to see the modern Democratic Party running things in my adult lifetime.
Now I understand why people vote third-party. When the country is teetering on the brink and can’t get by on non-solutions anymore, and avoiding failed-state status actually depends on starting to fix the problems rather than just pretending it’s trying, and EVEN THEN the Democratic Party can only respond by offering trillions to Wall Street and legally requiring people who can’t afford health insurance to buy it from private, oligopolistic, profit-maximizing companies, all because of industry’s hold on Congress… then there’s nothing else you can do. In such a sick system, all you have left is your integrity as the country goes to hell, and I understand with crystal clarity why people vote third-party.
Well said. We need an opposition party to the Republicans. Except for a handful of Dems, with no power, we don’t have one. I’ll be voting for a third party next election.
In response to another comment. See in context »I agree 100% and shit, I need to read more posts like this, if only for the fact that my health insurance runs out in a month, and I can’t afford individual health insurance in NY.
“pretending to try”
I think that hits the nail on the head. If what was good enough, one week ago, then why is it suddenly radioactive, today. We have 59 GD Dem Senators and a huge majority in the House. They don’t want to fix these problems, I reckon in part, because they’ll lose their relevance .
Good reminder about Nader. I was in college then, and I remember those guys [Nader supporters]. I hope they’re happy.
In response to another comment. See in context »“thanksralph”?? Is the response to Kall’s moving and earnest political self-history? The “incredible tone-deaf”-ness which Kall laments is clearly not confined to the White House.
In response to another comment. See in context »Weird. In 2000, many of us failed to support Al Gore, who would have been the greenest world leader in history, & who would have easily been the most liberal, I mean real liberal, not corporatist faux-liberal, president since FDR. So, what did we do in 2008? We carefully did not split our vote, in order to vote for what we wanted in 2000, & got what we thought we were protesting against the first time. Ah, hindsight. Of course, we should have known that the corporate media adored Barack Obama for the same reason it despised Al Gore. Too late now.
In response to another comment. See in context »Al Gore? Liberal?
Al Gore was the kind of “liberal” that went to bat for NAFTA and supported invading Iraq when they were under consideration. And you remember who he chose for a VP, right?
Liberal. Shit, we’re further from sanity than I thought…
In response to another comment. See in context »Sure. I didn’t say he was Chomsky, or even (my man!) Kucinich. But he had very little, if anything to do with NAFTA, OPPOSED the war in Iraq, & in 2000 Lieberman hadn’t revealed himself to be a shit-weasel. You ought to examine just where your bad feelings for Gore come from, keeping in mind that he was under total MSM attack for a number of years. He is clearly more liberal than Obama, & I don’t take it personally if you call me crazy,; I am, & we’re all a bit bitter these days.
Anyhow, it was a lovely post.
In response to another comment. See in context »Unfortunately, until third party candidates are taken seriously, i.e. campaign fund laws are changed, the only way NOT to throw your vote away is to use it to unseat incumbents.
http://www.KickThemAllOut.org
I almost couldn’t vote for Christie in the recent NJ election — I had to pull the lever really fast before I changed my mind and voted for third-party Daggett who seemed genuinely decent — but I have to admit, I was ELATED to know I played a part in unseating crooked Corzine.
And so what if Christie is worse a crook? The nice thing about the kick-them-all-out plan is that you can use it to unseat the person you just seated
)
In response to another comment. See in context »Extremely well said.
In response to another comment. See in context »Kall, you hit the nail on the head. I agree 100% with your analysis. I abstained from voting last Tuesday for all the reasons you just articulated. Let’s see if he sells out on his regulation bill (I expect he will and they are gonna go after him like Spitzer).
-Former Obama voter
In response to another comment. See in context »What the fuck difference does it make how somebody decorates their house? Just goes to show that government should be more local than national. If you get wood because you live in a place that doesn’t allow colored lights, fine! We all don’t have top live in such narrowly defined “communities”. That has to be the most asinine comment I have ever heard from the great Taibbi. White candles in the window are so nice-a! You sound like such a pussy!
Yeah. It’s called sarcasm, but… man, this writing thing sure is an inexact science, isn’t it?
In response to another comment. See in context »The problem is not that Obama has been insufficiently moderate, it is that he has failed in his leadership role to take the country in the direction it needs to go. Once the financial system was stabilized, he should have taken to the bully pulpit and set out to go about breaking up the banks. Twenty years ago breaking up the banks might have seemed like a radical idea, now it would be a popular idea (and the right thing to do considering the damage they have caused). Had this issue been front and center and the public decided they liked it, maybe the L.A. Times would be interpreting this as a shit to the left. In any event, Obama decided to put health care on the table first and badly botched the handling of it. (Health care is an important issue, but it should have been third on the list behind fixing the banks and working on doing more on the job creation front.) Health care reform did at one point have the support of the majority of the public, but too many compromises and not enough aggressive leadership on Obama’s part, including letting it drag out too long, let those on the right take the lead and shape public opinion on it. I hope Obama rightly interprets the wake up call he received to go after the banks (and not just with weak first start measure like his recent tax/levy idea), and that he does not let the L.A. Times do his thinking for him. If so, he will over react and refuse to spend more on job creation, and this will make the Democrats’ political situation even worse. Then they won’t be able to get anything done. Also, given the bothched handling of health care, he should drop it for now.
Of course he prioritized healthcare. It’s hard to pump taxpayer dollars into a donor corporations with job creation and bank regulation.
In response to another comment. See in context »I am ashamed of my state. I used to think we “get it” up here. Not anymore.
It’s been interesting to watch the media try to explain the Brown victory in a coherent fashion. I’m not sure if it can done. We are one year removed from one of the biggest repudiations of a political party in American political history. Not surprisingly, the economy is still terrible, so the Mass. voters think that a return to GOP principles is just what the doctored ordered? How does that even make sense? Doesn’t anyone remember last decade? Like at all?
The ironic thing about this election is, if you listen to Rep. Mike Capuano, whom Coakley defeated in the primary, he said everywhere he went, people were telling him that they wanted the government to do MORE to create jobs. Scott Brown is certainly not the type of person who will help that happen, but in a dysfunctional democracy with a lack of real political choices, this is the kind of stuff that happens.
We can expect an onslaught of democratic, lip-service pandering for the next 9 to 10 months; but the Dems long ago cut their own throats when they took over the house, and have NOTHING to show for it.
Obama Inc. is simply the anchor leg for what has been a long, and long coming, finale to the great American myth of moral & military superiority.
I think it was Plato who intimated that democracies would never work because the mass of men would always be too ignorant to vote wisely; too easily distracted by the slight-of-hand played out in the Coliseum. Smart man, that Plato.
Thor,
Interesting comment…Jefferson read his Plato and feared democracy, feared the ignorant masses would take us to disaster, history has proved him wrong for the most part…
In response to another comment. See in context »Yep. The bleedy ankle guy and the fly from Texas to Alaska while in labor lady. Two tough old birds!
Their campaign slogan: America? Tough!
Can you national writers please stop saying the NJ governor’s election is a result of national democratic woes? The NJ gubernatorial election was a result of Corzine being a giant dickbag. It was a complete local election.
Even so, it’s hard to believe that Christie is anyone’s lesser-giant dickbag.
The man could be the Poster Child for George Harrison’s “Piggies”.
Still, Christie’s election ought to finally skewer the Democratic Party’s confidence that voters would never reject an incumbent giant dickbag just to elect ANOTHER giant dickbag in their place.
But then again, they’ll almost certainly conclude that the solution is to find a better giant dickbag next time– in accordance with the zeitgeist of the pseudo-pragmatism of expediency, aka Machiavellian “realpolitik”, currently all the rage across the doomed Amerikan duopoly.
In response to another comment. See in context »Has Jeff Gannon gotten an exclusive interview with Cosmo Brown yet?
(rim-shot!)
In response to another comment. See in context »What happened to the “all politics is local” idea? MA was saddled with a hugely flawed Republican health care reform plan that was a big wet kiss to the industry and has caused untold misery to those whose premiums have skyrocketed, while still leaving a good chunk of the electorate uninsured. All year long we were told this was the plan that the national plan would be based on. Now comes Brown tapping into the anger and frustration of the MA voters who have to endure this plan, with all the support of Fox Nation and the Dick Armey, while Dems ponder their navels. Now comes Brown blabbing about unfair bailouts while Barney Frank facilitates the cossetting of its recipients. How is this not local? So Coakley was a bad candidate. So what? Lots of bad candidates get elected. They liked her enough to make her AG. There were local issues on the ground that were being addressed in this vote, and all this Obama-bashing won’t change that. One day the good burghers of MA will wake up and realize they elected a clown, and he will go. I understand these things. I live in PA, where Rick Santorum’s little empire came in like a natural disaster, then went away with a whimper after enough of my fellow-citizens grew tired of being embarassed.
I would love to believe this win by the GOP in Massachusetts means that the Dems will spend the time between now and 2012 realizing what they have to do to win, and will find REALLY GOOD candidates who are dedicated to changing the way the system is currently run. BUT, let’s face it, I thought Obama was going to be that guy too, and he clearly is not. Matt, I remember seeing you on Rachel Maddow back in….August or so…..basically saying the word on the street was that Obama gave a wink and a hand shake to the insurance and pharmaceutical companies a long time ago, and we wouldn’t see substantial health care reform. You looked sad as you said it, and you made me sad. I’ve not seen you on TV much at all since, and I’m confused. Did you get the bum’s rush? Even by Rachel, Keith and the lefties? Did they not like hearing what you had to say? Or is it not good for ratings to already “call it” on health care, or…
Anyway, I’ve always said the GOP are the professional crooks and the DEMS are the dumb crooks. Appears it’s still that way, even these days with that guy who was going to bring the change I oh so wanted to believe in.
Matt – - keep up the great work. Bill Maher’s back in a few weeks – - hope to see you on there, at least.
It’s all about the anger. Obama and the congressional Dems were swept into office on a wave of voter anger. You’d think they’d recognize it and use it instead of being so politically tin-eared to so publicly side with the finance and insurance industries.
They are instead governing like no one is paying attention, hardly even throwing the American public the occasional table scrap.
This defeat is a spectacular failure politically, throwing a terrible candidate into a must hold seat and then meeting with insurance lobbyists shortly before the election – she lost through sheer arrogance. This election IS in a way a microcosm of the Democratic party.
The Dems won’t lead and can’t even get the politics right, letting the Republicans (!!!) claim the anger and populism brewing in this country.
It occurs to me that last night’s election was something very close to direct democracy. Imagine if instead of an unplanned Senate election, we had had a nationwide referendum on the health care bill. Just as Coakley lost as a proxy for the health care bill, so too would the health care bill referendum have lost all across the nation.
The Democrats are in a tizzy over Brown’s win, of course, but even the Republicans seem out of kilter. They know Brown did not win because Massachusetts residents had en masse turned into Rush Limbaugh fans.
Maybe, just maybe, both parties are a little bit concerned about citizens exercising power in such a “brutish” manner.
…Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio a nation turns its lonely eyes to you
Whats that you say Mrs. Robinson Jumpin Joe has left and gone away…hey hey hey…hey hey hey
That verse seems so relevant to me today
Obama needs to be more moderate than he’s been? Independents think he’s not the moderate they voted for? Let’s fire up The Way-Back Machine and rewind to about 18-24 months ago. He campaigned on a platform of reform, real change, transparency, and changing the way business and politics is conducted in Washington. He won in a virtual landslide and was handed huge majorities in Congress and a mandate to fulfill his campaign promises. That is not a plan for ‘moderation’, it is a plan for fundamental restructuring and refocusing of a nation. So, what’s transpired in the past year? He and his administration have out Blue Dogged the Blue Dogs, he’s embraced Wall Street and the Banksters, left the middle-class twisting in the wind and begging for jobs and foreclosure relief. In fact, his political behavior and methods are blatantly more Republican than Democratic. Oh, the words and the veneer might have progressive Democratic sounds and trappings, but the results have been anything but progressive or Democratic. The administration has left almost every Bush abuse and misguided policy in place and if anything, amplified them.
Is this Real Change? Is this ‘progressive’ or ‘Democratic’? Is this not business as usual? If he became any more ‘moderate’ he’d have to change parties.
Obama and those he’s surrounded himself with have forgotten why and under what circumstances they were elected. They were elected to Get Shit Done. They weren’t elected on a bipartisan platform. People wanted, and still want, to see concrete, positive changes in their lives. They have not and they are thoroughly pissed off about it. And rightfully so. They feel they’ve been victimized in a classic bait-and-switch. I forget where I heard the analogy, but it goes something like this:
The campaign and election was like going to a Feel-Good movie and after you leave the theater, you discover your car’s been stolen.
I’m weary of the cliche that Obama’s playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers or the excuse that he’s well-intended, but inexperienced. I call Bullshit. Rahm is no neophyte, nor is Axelrod or any of the rest. They know exactly what they’re doing as far as deal-making goes. They pulled a fast one on the electorate, got caught, and they’ll pay for it in the mid-terms and 2012.
So, let me see if I can follow the “logic” of independent voters. They came out in droves to vote for Obama last year because they thought he was progressive. Now, because he has turned out to be moderate, they have either stayed home or voted for someone who is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of a progressive? In either case, they have effectively given the election to someone who doesn’t represent their beliefs in the Senate.
This is one of the many reasons why people should need to pass a test before they’re allowed to vote.
I have a coworker who describes himself as a conservative and a Republican. Yet, he consistently votes for Russ Feingold! I want to punch him in the face. How can a country be effectively run when people are this out of touch?
As a resident of the Great State of Wisconsin, I beg you not to punch anybody in the face for consistently voting for Russ Feingold. Find another reason to punch him in the face, I’m sure there’s plenty. Thanks.
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] commenter over at Matt Taibbi’s blog: The idiot pundits proclaiming this as a protest to Obama’s “overreach” are just morons and [...]
The best thing that could possibly happen to the Democratic party would be the formation of a third party comprising disaffected progressives and independents. Not the Green Party or Socialist Party, but a progressive, sleeves rolled up, smart phones blazing party that rewards honest solutions not greed or fear. That would inevitably pull the Democratics back to the left so as to distinguish themselves from the right. It would further expose the Dems who are really Republicans or corporate shills, while offering a venue for fresh voices to be heard in American politics.
I would like to agree with you and have hope of a 3rd party in American politics, but I think the Republican/conservative SCOTUS is a step ahead of you making sure that doesn’t happen, by unleashing all those corporate dollars in future elections, reinforcing the “golden rule”. The chance of independents or 3rd party candidates getting elected with all that money available to defend the status quo and even further fill the needs of special interests are pretty bleak.
In response to another comment. See in context »the little Lady was a train wreck of a canidate who couldn’t even do the basic retail politics…the conservatives were energized and the libreals base as always was flat…now the pundits will come out with the standard claptrap of consensus of how Obama must run to the mythical center, which I think now involves blowing up Iran and drawn and quartering detainees on the white house lawn.
Since the mid 80’s when the Democratic party became a totally owned subsibidary of Big biddness (DLC dominance in picking canidates)our politics have been atrocious, no Democratic nominee will stand before the nation and say “Hey if the Government is going to exist as an institution and you are gonna be taxed anyway, how about we give you health care, educate your snot nose brats, maybe some roads, bridges, repair the power grid or a library would be nice”
No can’t say that…can’t say that you are actually gonna do something with the power you seek, no the Americans dont want their governments to do anything other than invade their neighbors funnel money to the military contractors (only growth in the past 10 years in job creation) and bailout Wall Street.
A progressive independent living in NJ, I found myself voting recently voting for Christie (R), and couldn’t be more thrilled with Brown’s victory in MA last night. And I don’t care if I have to vote for Sarah Palin next presidential election, I will be voting Obama out post haste.. you betcha’! *wink
Thank GOD we had our $500 campaign contribution refunded after he caved on FISA in 2008. The writing was on the wall at our house. I’m pleased the rest of America is finally catching on.
http://www.KickThemAllOut.org
You aren’t throwing your vote away if you intentionally use it to unseat incumbents. So what if you wind up voting in a bigger crook? It’s my little way of saying, “Right back atcha, America.” Naturally, you will vote to unseat them, too.
Vote for Palin? Have you completely lost your mind?
In response to another comment. See in context »I believe “biting off your nose to spite your face” covers it.
Last week I got an email from the White House asking me to make calls for Coakley; it didn’t matter that I live in Nebraska, they just wanted all of us who campaigned and voted for Obama to get behind ‘his’ candidate in MA. Since I really didn’t know anything about her I ‘googled’ her and while Wikipedia tries to be unbiased, I still didn’t like everything I read so deleted the ‘call to arms’ from the White House.
Admittedly, another part of the reason I was only ‘mildly’ (as opposed to even being ‘moderate[ly]‘) interested in doing anything for the WH at this point is because I have become seriously disillusioned with not only Obama, but even more so with his healthcare bill. At this point in time if it does NOT pass muster I truly cannot find anything negative about that possibility. I honestly do not want to face the hard reality that as the healthcare bill exists today it will do nothing but give more to the people who truly do NOT deserve it, and make it even less likely that we will ever again have robust middle class, but, being a pragmatist I can only deny the truth for so long.
Now is long enough.
I cannot tell you why they’re mad in Massachusetts, other than that the only sports success Boston has had this year has been in the NHL frozen classic, but I can tell you why I am angry:
1. I work twice as hard for half the money and my company acts as if only my CEO and CFO contribute anything to the bottom line – my salary and bonus have been frozen since 2008;
2. I was forced to put all my retirement savings into a 401K account controlled by men who wear bowties and get pedicures even though a nice cd account would have suited me fine;
3. I live in a tiny house, drive an old car and almost never vacation yet all those “poor” deceived homeowners live in mansions, drive BMW’s and go to Costa Rica 3 times a year, got to redo their mortgages and essentially live rent free for 5 years;
4. I voted for a man who said he would change America and the first thing he did was bailout car companies so he could pay back his union backers even though the unions were part of the reason they failed to begin with;
5. I am pissed off that no one that caused the financial crisis, from the homeowners to the mortgage brokers, to the mortgage company managers, to the bankers, to the Wall Street guys who sold the CDO’s, to the regulators, to the rating agencies, to the banks, to the companies (AIG) that sold credit default swaps, to our political leaders, has gone to jail or accepted any responsibility;
6. My state is going bankrupt and we’re cutting services to the poor when the need is at it’s greatest and the media acts like I am cold-hearted bastard because I don’t want my taxes raised – all I can say to the Govt is what the hell did you do with all the money that I already gave you?
7. I am sick and tired of the game being rigged. To the point, no matter how hard I work, no matter how much I earn, not matter how many years I toiled in school, that the rich and poor seem to poised to take more from me;
8. I am mad that my son’s education system is so bad (our state is ranked 47th in scores) that I had to send the kid to a private catholic school which I cannot afford just so he will have a chance in life yet we don’t have vouchers so at least part of my taxes can be reimbursed;
9. I am tired of spending a $1 billion dollars a day so that our military can fight two wars in the Middle East, which has enough oil reserves to fight their own battles, or at least not price gouge us like they’re doing now. Since we basically provide military protection to the world for free, how about we start sending bills to everyone – Saudi Arabia, you owe us 40 years of protection so give us free oil for the next 20 years and we’ll call it even. If not, good luck over there; and
10. Finally, I am angry at being angry all the time.
Amen brother, I tend to be more in your camp. Though I think Matt is a patriot, there is a distorted view of justice that eminates from privileged liberals. They seem to endorse the idea that all ills of society need to shouldered by us sheep who play by the rules but with little influence in making the rules. I live on the West coast, so I really don’t know much about Mass. other than it is supposed to be full of liberals, lawyers, and lobsters. My take is a simple one. The Democrat was trying to win “Ted Kennedy’s seat”. The Republican was smart enough to say that this is the “people’s seat”. That probably was a 10 point gain right there. Ted was there for over 4 decades working as part of an implicit aristocracy who tried to hand out alms to unresponsible peasants. I just want a government that will treat everybody the same, not make everybody the same.
In response to another comment. See in context »The Dem’s ahve no BALLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is anyone really surprised?.
The dems in congress have no BALLS and Obama need to take the gloves off.
Kick Lieberman’s ass out.
Minimize the Blue Dogs and make it happen.
I would rather loose fighting with honor than loosing without.
Losing Ted Kennedy’s seat to the G.O.P. had better wake Obama up.
If not he is a goner….
Well said.
In response to another comment. See in context »Get over it….Obama is owned by the bankers. Relax enjoy the destruction of the middle class. The PTB don’t give a damn about the citizens or the republic. Get off your axx Matt and deliver some balls. Progressive have been sold out by the same cabal that gave you the 14 Trillion in the back door to the banks.
If it’s been said already, apologies, but at this point in 1982 the same things were being said about Reagan: he was lousy, not up to the job, a one-termer, etc, etc.
Come to think of it, the same things were said about Clinton at the end of his first year when he confused us to tears with gays in the military. But he knew it would be a tough sell so he used his capital right out of the gate leaving himself time to regroup before the midterms. Bad call but he also tried to tackle health care which is becoming an albatross for Dems.
At this point I wish Congress could muster up the compassion to fill our water supply with huge doses of valium and anti-depressants. Show us mercy or become ruthless, either would be a nice change of pace.
President Obama is a big stupid head
I am a progressive democrat who voted for Obama and here is my 2c. I lived and worked in Hawaii for 12 years and Obama is a product of that environment. I love Hi and go back often as I have a son there, but he is not a Chicago guy and I also lived there; he is an island guy. The difference between Hi and Chi is the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing it. Obama grew up in a very soft, crabs in the bucket lifestyle that is the island way. This is reflected in his style of governing. Name a senator from Hi or a rep who has done something great or innovative, it is just not the island way. “No make waves brudda”. In Hi he is known as a Happa, which is mixed race. People who are white “Haoles” are the most distrusted. Obama did not really suffer prejudice growing up and every kid on the island does pot it’s the state flower. Obama is now stuck. The island way does not work on the mainland and it will never work in Washington. Can he find the courage to change his philosophy I doubt it so we must be very careful on what fights we pick knowing that support from the WH could be and sometimes will be diffident. It’s just the island way.
There has clearly been a growing power struggle in the Democratic party between the Liberals and the ascendant DLC (whose liberalism is strictly pro-forma & opportunistic). Of course, the DLC will blame it’s rivals for this debacle, in order to preserve, & possibly expand it’s power in the organisation. I think it’s interesting, though, that the DLC doesn’t do populism as well as it’s opposite numbers on the Republican side- perhaps they realize that the Dem’s liberal base isn’t as susceptible to manipulation as the R’s conservative base. Coakley’s lazy, sloppy, & complacent campaign seemed to think that the Mass Dem’s liberal base was an easy, automatic lock- I don’t know how closely Coakley was associated with the DLC, but her assumption that getting the blessings of the “movers & shakers” was enough to assure the win, smacks of establishment mind-set to me. In any case, the DLC has to do two contradictory things at the same time: 1) blame the party Liberals for the defeat, & 2) pander to a base that distrusts & dislikes them enough so that they won’t be abandoned to the mercy of fickle independents again. Best of luck with that, Rahm.
Based upon these posts, my humble opinion is that both sides (liberal & conservatives) are missing the undercurrent of how politics is changing in America and it can be summed up in one simple sentence: Americans don’t trust Republicans or Democrats as both groups are liars, thieves and filled with incompetents. From Bush and Rove to Sarah Palin to Pelosi, Frank & Reid – it’s like a bunch of WWE wrestlers without the cool costumes.
I think a decent analogy on or current situation is that we (Americans) have been in the back seat of a car that has been driven a thousand miles off course and the Democrat and Republican drivers (who have both been driving at various times) are arguing about how it was the other that got them lost in the last 100 miles.
So my prediction is that America will become a “whack a mole” electorate: A Democrat pops her head up and whack she goes back down. A Republican pops his head up and whack, he goes away. We will keep whacking until we run out moles (never going to happen) or we decide that this is a dumb, mindless game and just turn it off. Yes, we need a new political party that is solely for the middle class, not the rich, not the poor, just us stupid worker bees, struggling to make ends meet just so our kids can get into a decent college.
I feel like a ship without a port — what do I do if I hate Rove and Rahm Emanuel equally?
I guess I can tell you what I did about that dilema, in general terms.
Stop thinking of Rove and Rahm as polar-opposite, opposing forces. Don’t let every issue be defined as right/left. (The funniest one to me is global warming. If you believe it’s real, you gotta be a liberal. A hoax, a conservative. Now, poll a group of Republicans and Democrats about another scientific matter, say, String Theory. See if the divide is along party lines.)
I think of it as the Oligarchy vs. The Other 99% of Us. Maybe you want to define it another way. Maybe Honest Sincere People Who Don’t Want to Succeed by Deceit vs. ‘Just Give Me the Trophy I Don’t Care How’ People.
Or a million other ways. Just realize you don’t have to let others define the battle lines for you.
Some people seem to have cognitive dissonance over the fact that Massachusetts voters went with Obama in 2008, but Brown in 2010. How could you go from a liberal to a right winger! Simple: for many, the divide was Insurance Mandate vs. No Insurance Mandate. Obama (and the Democrats) morphed from No Mandate to Mandate. Brown was No Mandate.
In response to another comment. See in context »I just want to come in on this with a lighter note because I remember Paul Volcker coming up here before. I don’t want to count any unhatched chickens but I think we may end up seeing some sort of change in policy soon:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/21/AR2010012104935.html
It’s nice to finally see Volcker upfront and Geithner in back. This, of course, may end up being a whole lot of hot ait. It IS a change though. An interesting one.
Obama’s goal as a politician is to stay elected. With his current way of approaching things evidently not doing him any good, he may end up going back to the people he should have been listening to in the first place. I am perhaps being overly hopeful and speculative though.
I hate to get sucked in and be hopeful about this, but it was definitely the best news on bad day
In response to another comment. See in context »Agreed. Only keeping my fingers crossed at this point.
Anyway, Bloomberg has another good article on the proposal:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aKJuUZlozezE&pos=7
In response to another comment. See in context »I’m already reading the banker/wall street gambling houses “spin” this morning – they won’t roll over easily on this, but we do know Volcker has the balls to get it done
In response to another comment. See in context »Fred Smerlas pollutes the air in Upstate NY, too.
He appears two nights a week in Rochester on WHAM 1180 during their sports show. This is a station that has the usual conservative “talent” on the air, and the host likes to get Fred’s unique perspective on politics. His knowledge of recent history is impressive: I remember him telling a caller that Jimmy Carter beat Richard Nixon to become president. Any wonder there are so many criminally uninformed in this country?
[...] desired is not the change seen. We voted for principle & instead we get parody. A commenter at True/Slant captures a familiar sentiment. The idiot pundits proclaiming this as a protest to Obama’s [...]
I’m not so convinced that Brown’s victory was a repudiation of Obama and his agenda. Massachusetts already has socialized health care, and by all reports it is much better than the senate bill would’ve been. I would be willing to bet that a considerable portion of Massachusetts voters were well aware of this, and voted for Brown so that they could keep their state-run health care.
The senate bill is such a travesty that even liberal-leaning organizations such as NOW and National Nurses United oppose it. The citizens of Massachusetts voted in their self-interest in regards to health care…it probably wasn’t the majority of Brown voters, but I bet it was enough to make the difference in his election. Why has this angle been completely ignored by the media?