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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Jules Witcover
Senator Scott Brown (© Dana Summers)
It's hard to conceive of any political event that could have been more shocking, considering the early efforts by Kennedy himself to guarantee his vote for President Obama's drive for sweeping health-care reform.
Before his death last August, the state's senior senator personally pressured the Massachusetts legislature to take steps he and practically everybody else thought would assure the preservation of that vote.
The solons on Beacon Hill acquiesced in allowing the Democratic governor, Deval Patrick, to appoint an interim replacement after the senator's death, so as not to deprive the party of one of its two votes in the
The broad assumption was that Bay State voters would put another Democrat in the seat, either as a last gesture of esteem for Kennedy or simply through the overwhelming Democratic registration in one of the bluest of the blue states.
But at least two funny things happened on the way to the election. First, the Democrats nominated an extraordinarily inept candidate in state Attorney General Martha Coakley, whose campaign gaffes and an unimpressive presence left voters flat.
Second and more important, a public impatience, frustration and anger was mounting toward the Democrats running Washington, personified in Obama's soaring rhetoric unmatched by his accomplishments.
The president's early decision to seek a domestic version of Lyndon Johnson's guns and butter in the 1960s -- fighting a war while continuing his quest of a Great Society at home -- similarly overloaded the public's circuits.
Insisting on a massive health-care reform while waging two wars and spending heavily to wrestle down a deep domestic economic crisis was proving too much for voters to swallow at once.
Early warnings of the public anger came in the developing
With the filibuster-proof
The administration must now decide whether to press on with Obama's version of guns and butter or trim its sails somewhat and pivot to the problem of much greater immediate concern on Main Street -- job creation. The obvious and bold answer is to launch a massive new public-works program to deal with long-neglected infrastructure repair across the country.
But considering the baying of the
Meanwhile, Obama has sought to dampen down the public anger with a plan to tax major banks that received huge taxpayer bailouts and are now instituting or contemplating a second round of those obnoxious executive bonuses. The move ought to draw heavy support from complaining taxpayers, but so far it seems to have generated more wails from anti-tax conservatives.
Obama encountered a mountain of unanticipated problems in his first year as president, but they didn't deter him from pursuing his own very ambitious agenda. His second year by necessity and reality seems likely to dictate a narrowing of goals, especially in light of that Massachusetts two-by-four wakeup call.
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Scott Brown: Some Wakeup Call | Jules Witcover
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