It really is hard to overstate the significance of Republican Scott Brown's defeat of Democrat Martha Coakley in yesterday's special election in Massachusetts. The contest was for the Senate seat of Democrat hero Ted Kennedy who had held the post for 40 years. The election was held in a state in which a Republican hadn't been sent to the Senate since the early seventies, a state in which the Democrat party holds a 3-1 edge over the GOP in voter registration, and in which Barack Obama defeated John McCain by 26% just a year and a half ago.
Pundits are speculating as to what it all means. There are questions now about the fate of health care reform and the rest of President Obama's agenda. There are questions about how many more Democrats will resign or switch parties to avoid being clobbered in the regular election to be held this November. There are questions about how a little known state senator was able to overcome a 30 point Coakley lead just three weeks ago and beat her by 5 points.
Whatever the answers to these questions turn out to be, it's clear that the game has changed. People are fed up with Harry Reid's vote buying, congressional corruption, secret negotiations, and broken campaign promises. They don't want higher taxes and they don't want the government taking over major sectors of the economy like finance, insurance and the automotive industries. When they voted for Hope and Change what they wanted, I think, was not a fundamental restructuring of the American system along socialist lines, but rather a president who would project competence, eloquence, and non-partisanship. They wanted an end to all the sniping and bickering in the press. Instead all they got was the eloquence and a whole lot of other stuff they never expected (although they should have).
I think the resulting disillusionment with the President and his party's leadership is the main reason they were defeated in the recent races for Governor in Virginia and New Jersey and now in the Massachusetts Senate race. Democrats were on television last night saying that Coakley ran a terrible campaign, but the fact is she should have been able to prevail in Massachusetts without campaigning at all.
If a Democrat can't win in the bluest of blue states they're not safe anywhere which causes me to wonder how many of them will be willing in the weeks ahead to risk their careers to support the health care bill that the President and the congressional leadership are pushing on us. I doubt there are very many.
RLC
