OK. So I missed on my prediction. Scott Brown won "the people's seat" from Massachusetts in the US Senate by a five percent margin, not the six percent that I predicted. But hey, it's better to be an optimist!
On to the Wednesday morning quarterbacking. What does this present from the voters to President Obama on the anniversary of his inauguration mean? Fred Barnes has a five point analysis that I think hits all the bases. But the key, I think, is his point 2: "Independents are lost to Democrats," at least for now, and most probably until they get fed up with the next Republican administration.
Yeah. I'll say. The big success for Democrats in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles was in persuading moderates and independents to vote for them. They did it by fielding moderate-to-conservative candidates in Republican-leaning districts. OK. Good tactics. Then they blew it by tacking hard left after Obama was elected. And so they have lost independents and moderates for the next ten years.
Because all a Republican candidate has to say when some moderate-to-conservative Democrat is running against him is "Remember ObamaCare!"
What the Dems coulda, shoulda done was spend a couple of years doing comforting moderate things, like tinkering with health care, tinkering with global warming, and getting the economy on track. Then they could have tried the liberal stuff, after building a relationship with their new moderate recruits.
Instead they went for broke, figuring that they would get their Moby-Dick energy taxes and government takeover of health care through before the voters could stop them. So the moderates pretty quickly understood that they were a one-night-stand, and that they were being used.
Another thing on the moderate/independent front. Scott Brown picked up the support of the Tea Party movement people. So now it looks as though the Tea Party movement is not going to split the Republican vote as everyone was predicting. Now it looks as thought the Tea Party movement will be a benefit to Republican candidate. The Tea Party movement may be composed of people that are disconnected from the Republican Party. But they are obviously people of conservative temperament.
I'd suggest to by liberal friends that it's about time to stop with the "teabagger" pejoratives. All you chaps are doing is driving the Tea Party folks into the arms of the Republican Party.
Palin Watch:
Sarah Palin weighs in on her Facebook page, and the main point is a suggestion to Democrats that they come up with a better plan on health care.
Scrap your current health care bill and start from scratch... We need common sense solutions like reforming malpractice laws, allowing people to purchase insurance across state lines, giving individual purchasers the same tax benefits as those who get coverage through their employers, and letting small businesses pool together to provide insurance for their employees.
"Common sense solutions." As Pat Buchanan says, that lady sure knows how to frame an issue.
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