Posted on 01/24/2010 4:24:32 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Welcome to the Monday-morning quarterbacking forum. Where hindsight is always 20/20. Where everything looks clearer in the rear view mirror. Where success has many fathers and failure is an orphan. Where the blame game becomes a circular firing squad.
I'm just excited to be here.
And I'm hearing mostly what I expected to hear from the losing side, after one of the biggest political upsets in American history. By every measure of conventional wisdom, U.S. Senator-elect Scott Brown shouldn't have won. He shouldn't have even been close to the hallowed "Ted Kennedy seat."
But he did win. So, the biggest immediate scramble is not to get Obamacare in under the wire before Brown is allowed to take his seat. It is to explain it all away.
Martha Coakley, according to those who were touting her as the rightful heir to the Kennedy legacy just days earlier, was a lousy candidate. She ran a lousy campaign. That's it. Nothing else to see here. Move along.
Partially true. The number of stupid things she said was staggering: There are no terrorists in Afghanistan. Catholics shouldn't be allowed to work in hospital emergency rooms. It is beneath her to stand outside Fenway Park in the cold, shaking hands. Curt Schilling is a Yankees fan. Having a sister who lives overseas qualifies as foreign policy credentials (as columnist Mark Steyn put it, "I can see the Middle East from my sister's house.").
But if Sarah Palin had said things like that, they would have been magnified so much, repeated so much that she would have lost by 20 points, not five. Coakley largely got a pass, until after it was all over.
So Democrats who think that explains it all away, and that this has nothing to do with the Obama/Reid/Pelosi agenda are delusional. There are plenty of lousy Democrats who run lousy campaigns who have won, and keep winning, in a walk. John Tierney, come on down!
The reason Martha Coakley lost is because a lot of people weren't really paying attention to what "hope and change" meant a year ago. They know what it means now. They don't like it. And they are paying attention. The turnout was as stunning as the result.
That means the constant "bogeyman" ads trying to link any Republican candidate to Bush, Cheney and Palin are going to be less and less effective. They've been gone for a year. Those ads now sound petulant, whiny, even slimy.
People didn't like Bush leaving a $500 billion deficit. Why do Democrats think the people are now in love with deficits in the trillions? President Obama seems to think if we just print more money, we will be richer. The Chinese know better. So do most voters.
People don't like the bribes and payoffs to buy votes for Obamacare — the special deals for Nebraska, for Louisiana and for union health plans. They know that if Republicans were doing that, the Democrats would be screaming about rampant corruption. They know the bill wasn't approved on the merits. It stinks, and they can smell it.
They don't like government takeovers of private enterprise.
They don't like the hypocrisy of accusations that Brown is in bed with special interests, while Coakley was down in Washington taking $10,000 checks from big-money lobbyists.
They don't like the double-talk — President Obama demonizing banks in one breath for paying their CEOs too much, and then wondering in the next breath why they aren't lending more money.
They don't like the lengthening list of broken promises: This would be the most transparent administration in history — health care negotiations would be broadcast on CSPAN. Sorry, inoperative.
Gitmo would close by this week. Uh, not yet.
The "good" war in Afghanistan is not looking so good any more.
If the $787 billion stimulus bill passed, unemployment would stay below 8 percent. It didn't? Well, that must be Bush's fault.
There won't be any lobbyists in my administration. Just kidding.
And on and on.
Brown knew that normal people don't like the idea of, as he put it, government spending money on lawyers to defend terrorists instead of weapons to defeat them. That pleases only the wingnut fringe.
Finally, people don't like the blatant elitism. The attitude that those who disagree with us are not only wrong but stupid, dangerous, evil, racist, homophobic, sexist blah, blah, blah.
It's the attitude the president took while mocking Brown. "Everybody can buy a truck," he said.
Yes, the president and his rich, elite friends can all buy trucks. But no, everybody else can't buy a truck. They can't afford it.
It's the attitude that says anger is principled and smart when directed at demonizing Bush, but anger at Obama comes only from dumb, white yahoos.
If the Democrats keep using that as a campaign template, they'd better get ready to be stunned some more.
But there is a message in all this for the winner as well.
The biggest threat to Scott Brown is not the Democrats in 2012, but that he will start to believe his, for now, adoring press clippings — that he's the new, rising Republican star, headed for a presidential ticket.
The best thing he can do is remain grounded, and avoid the arrogance that infects Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and our own John Kerry. As he said, this is the people's seat. He won it with their help. If he remembers that, he is likely to sit in it for a long time.
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Taylor Armerding is associate editorial page editor of The Eagle-Tribune. He may be reached at 978-946-2213 or at tarmerding@eagletribune.com. Read him daily at The Soapbox, the Eagle-Tribune blog at blogs.eagletribune.com/soapbox
I wish the Republicans would get it.
BarackO is the Democrats’ man. It’s up to the Democrat party leaders to educate him or get him out of office.
I hope they don’t get it until Nov 5th!
I think it’s time to stop attacking the Pub pols and give some credit. They hung tough against the RATS on Obamacare without a single defection, even Snow and Collins. I’m even going to go out on a limb here and give some credit to McCain and the gang of 14 Pubs. I was totally POed at them at the time, but they may just have saved the filibuster as a viable tool to stop the RATS now. I’m willing to admit they were right and I was wrong. I know a lot of FReepers don’t want to hear that, but we need to give credit to our guys when they do good.
Don’t we all... I am worried that the Republicans are just as stupid as the Democrats and misread the current atmosphere. They are not exactly known for their understanding of the public backlash - slow learners and all...
Well, there is always a third party option if their stupidity continues. The problem is that it will take years to get a foothold and by then the country will be lost.
Good points about giving credit where credit is due.
“They may be SOBs, but they’re our SOBs” Who was it that said that, was it Truman?
Don’t you mean Massachusettes?
>>“They may be SOBs, but they’re our SOBs” Who was it that said that, was it Truman?
I’m not sure, but my guess would be either GEN Patton said it, or someone (Eisenhower or Bradley) said it about Patton.
FDR, about Samoza.
I agree. I said the same thing to my wife the other day. Now we just need to get rid of Steele. But we have to be careful or we'll be called racists.
They are just as Clueless ,Even Scott Brown says Health Care does need Reform,But No one spells out what I think that Most Americans want in Reform and That is REORM that LOWERS THE COST,Does Not INCREASE IT! That will alleviate part of the problem ,Lowering the cost allows more People access which Democrats SAY they want.
What we need is More Lizards ,Green ones ,pink ones Blue ones,selling Health Insurance plans Tailored to all different Needs of Individuals ,Allowing Doctors themselves to form Groups to offer services and EXCEPT cash Payments! Imagine that!
The Democrats always start form the idea that everyone is evil and Therefore if you dont buy insurance according to their dictates you get fined and go to prison,that is UNAMERICAN! Not to Mention telling our Granparents that they have had enough Quality Life years and we cant afford to give you health care so go take the pill and shut up.
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