Posted on 01/19/2010 2:27:42 PM PST by NormsRevenge
BOSTON – In a contest with major national implications, Massachusetts voters chose a successor to the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on Tuesday in a down-to-the-wire election that became a referendum on President Barack Obama's sweeping health care overhaul and his first year in office.
A loss — or even a narrow victory — by once-favored Democrat Martha Coakley to insurgent Republican Scott Brown in this Democratic stronghold could signal big political problems for the president's party this fall when House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates are on the ballot nationwide.
More immediately at stake was a critical 60th vote for Democrats to save their health care legislation and the rest of Obama's agenda. A 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate could allow the GOP to block the president's priorities with filibusters.
The election transformed reliably Democratic Massachusetts into a battleground state. One day shy of the first anniversary of Obama's swearing-in, it played out amid a backdrop of animosity and resentment from voters over persistently high unemployment, industry bailouts, exploding federal budget deficits and partisan wrangling over health care.
Days before the vote, White House advisers and other Democrats in Washington began making excuses for they called a poorly run campaign on Coakley's part. Obama flew to Boston for last-minute personal campaigning on Sunday.
Wall Street watched closely. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 116 points, and analysts attributed the increase to hopes the election would make it harder for Obama to make his changes to health care. That eased investor concerns that profits at companies such as insurers and drug makers would suffer.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
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8 PM.
Less than a half hour till I can consider breathing again.
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Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU!!!It is with deep sincere pleasure I thank you!
CONGRATULATIONS!!! I think this is HUGE!!! ...for ALL of us!
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