If you watch the news at all you know about the GOP's newest hero Scott Brown. Yes Scott Brown is a Republican who won Ted Kennedy's seat in the liberal stronghold of Massachussetts. So what does Brown's victory say about the state of politics in America right now? Well it says a lot of things... but let's first look at what the Republicans are saying it means and analyze the merits of their arguments.
1 - according to Larry Kudlow at Real Clear Politics Brown's victory means that Tax cuts are the most important thing on people's minds. If this is the case, he is in line with the president, who recently gave American's the biggest middle class tax cut in history.
2 - If you listen to the pundits on Fox, or any right wing mouth piece, they are all saying "This was a direct response to Obama's Health Care Reform Plan, voters were angry about it!" -- which may be true, but Massachussetts already has univeral healthcare for people below the poverty line... and a majority of people are very happy with it. So it would be easy to infer that more than anything voters in Mass know that the proposal for Health Reform currently on the table is complete BS in comparison to what their state already has... that of course won't stop the GOP (and conservadem) spin masters who are being paid by the Insurance companies from trying to pretend otherwise.
3 - Pundits are also saying that Brown's election is a sign that the Republicans are regaining ground. This is also questionable as Brown ran as a "tea party" candidate rather than a member of the Republican party. He's also not exactly Jim DeMint...
If you dig a bit deeper and talk to people in Massachussetts, Brown did not win because of some big sea change in favor of the GOP... nor did he win because "the public disapproves of Obama's Health Care Plan" - in fact, Massachussetts ALREADY HAS UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE and their citizens are smart enough to recognize that the Health Reform that's currently on the table isn't even close to what states like theirs already has.
Kathleen Parker at Real Clear Politics has a much more sound view of what happened... You can read the entire piece here. But let me bullet some of her finer points:
- Coakley presumed her ascendancy without bothering to work for the vote, even once saying: What am I supposed to do, shake hands in the freezing cold outside Fenway Park?
- Coakley's remark that devout Catholics shouldn't work in emergency rooms if their pro-life consciences conflicted with the law of the land was tin-eared and insensitive.
- Finally, and not least, Coakley's comment that former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is a Yankee fan put her squarely in the category of clueless.
That last one pretty much sums up her demise. Anyone who's ever been to Boston knows how adamantly they support their baseball team and for Coakley to make a remark that's so blatently disconnected from her constituency is insane, she deserved to lose based on that alone.
Don't tell any of this to the Republicans though. As evidenced by the photo below... they are desperate for someone... anyone to lead them out of the darkness.
