Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Showdown In Old Mass


By the time you read this, the smoke may have cleared. If the last man standing is Republican Scott Brown, then President Obama's health care initiative and other things he will want to push through the senate may be in grave danger.

In a contest with major national implications, Massachusetts voters will choose a successor to The Late Senator Edward M. Kennedy in a surprisingly down-to-the-wire election that might be 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 is a critical 60th vote for Democrats to save their health care legislation and the rest of President Barack Obama's agenda. A 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate could allow the GOP to block the president's priorities with filibusters. Exactly what they have been wanting.

This election has transformed once reliably Democratic Massachusetts into a battleground state. One day shy of the first anniversary of President 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 what they called "a poorly run campaign on Coakley's part". President 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 President Obama to make his changes to health care.

This eased investor concerns that profits at companies such as insurers and drug makers would suffer. Across Massachusetts, voters who had been bombarded with phone calls and dizzied with non-stop campaign commercials for Coakley and Brown gave a fitting turnout, despite intermittent snow and rain statewide.

Boston reported twice the primary turnout among early voters, while in western Massachusetts, one in five registered voters in Longmeadow had shown up by 11 a.m. Secretary of State William Galvin predicted a turnout ranging from 1.6 million to 2.2 million, 40-55% of registered voters. The December 8th primary had a scant turnout of about 20%. As polls opened, Brown drove up to his polling place in Wrentham in the green pickup truck that came to symbolize his upstart, workmanlike campaign that in the past week pulled him into a surprise dead-heat in the polls. He is suddenly the populist everyman. (Don't make me laugh!)

"It would make everybody the 41st senator, and it would bring fairness and discussion back to the equation," the state senator said of a potential victory. He spent the rest of the day out of public view, crafting evening rally remarks that had the potential to be an early State of the Union speech for the national Republican Party. Amazing how republicans have the nerve to talk about this as "fairness". Fairness to who? The insurance companies and fat cats who already have adequate health care? Fairness to the lobbies they represent? Fairness to who? But, I digress...

Martha Coakley, stunned to see a double-digit lead evaporate in recent weeks, counted on labor unions and reawakened Democrats to turn out on her behalf and preserve a seat Kennedy and his brother, President John F. Kennedy, held for over 50 years. The senator died in August 2009 of brain cancer.

I hope the sleeping Democrats wake up and do something. As of this writing, the race is any one of theirs to win or to lose. What you, the citizen (the poor and desperate type that I'm talking to and for in the first place), have at stake is the change that you voted for the year before last being brought to a crawl. In the words of another recently-deceased Teddy (Teddy Pendergrass)... "Wake Up, Everybody!"
Post Script: As of this writing, The Republican candidate, Scott Brown has won the election. Teddy Kennedy is probably spinning in his grave!

1 comment:

Arlene said...

Yes cousin, I agree: WAKE UP EVERYBODY!! (and I did mean to shout that message profanely young Meuses.) The election in Mass. should be a reminder to us and our president that "the fight" has just begun. We thought that electing Mr. Obama was the first step toward change, that is an overhaul of our society's view of its citizens. In the words of Dr. King: If we wish to throw off the racism and militarism that have stained our history, we must reform our very economic and social systems.

Yes we must change! That's what we voted for and are "waiting" for. But we don't want to change ourselves or the artificial positions we have established for ourselves. Doing the same things nets the same results.

And remember, our grandmother said the old saying repeatedly, "One monkey don't stop the show!" Scott Brown can not stop progress on healthcare alone.




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