It Wasn't President Obama....It Wasn't Health Care...It Wasn't Martha Coakley's Lethargic Campaign

[DemocratSinceBirth]

It's this damn economy.

You have damn near twenty percent real unemployment. The UC6 which measures unemployment and includes the unemployed, underemployed, and discouraged workers is 17.3%.


And that doesn't include the unemployed, formerly self employed, who don't appear on the rolls.


If this economy doesn't turn it will bury all of us...

[dkf]

1. Well if they thought we were trying maybe they would give us props.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. It's The Economy

As James Carville said "it's the economy, stupid".

There's a fear in the land and it's palpsble.

With a real unemployment rate of 20% there is a good chance, you, a family member, or a close friend are jobless...

[Bitwit1234]

13. I don't blame people.

It is the fact that they don't have jobs. But you tell me. Where will we get them. The manufacturing jobs will never ever come back. Dot com is doing too well in India. And the auto business has been shipped out and the big benefit and paying jobs are gone for good.

Just tell me..Where where where will be get jobs. Mostly all that is left is service industries. Working in restaurants, cleaning house, construction, and lawyers and doctors. So minimal wage jobs will be mostly the only ones available.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. The Fear In The Land Is Palpable

I have never seen anything close to this in my entire life. It's a vicious cycle that feeds on itself.

[mistertrickster]

7. No freaking kidding. Reagan was the so-called "Great Communicator"

Obama is turning out to be the Great Compromiser.

Piss on your base, and guess what, they don't work for your causes anymore.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Glad to see the negative recs go positive.

I agree, but there are many who would like to use this loss as an "I told you so" poster child for the failure of this administration, or of Democrats in general.

I disagree with them, I agree that the economy is the number one cause, but would add that she was a weak candidate...

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. I'm Going Back To Bed. I Saw This Train Coming A Mile AWay

Coakley, Smokely... In normal time Mickey Mouse could have won in Massachussetts with a D after his or her name. It was our Utah.

I have no solutions though for this economy. It's in the ditch and has taken me and many a good folk with it.

[Mz Pip]

3. And the Republicans

are soooooooo good with job creation.

Talk about biting one's nose to spite the face.

[laughingliberal]

5. I think there is a lot to that. I do think, however, we need to hear more out of our leaders

I remember being very discouraged when President Obama convened the job's forum and said, "We have limited resources for this..." I understand their polling showed them people were worried about spending. But I'm not convinced spending would worry people as much if the spending was directly benefiting them. For instance, using the money to stop foreclosures to help the homeowners instead of giving it to the banks and trusting them to help the homeowners. Oh, there would have been some wailing and carrying on (some from here) but foreclosures would have slowed and the glut of houses on the market would not still be growing so fast. Results go a long way in alleviating concerns about spending.

[HughMoran]

6. Martha Coakley: “We need to get taxes up”

I agree, and the above statement didn't help.

[EFerrari]

8. I don't know much about MA but that sounds right to me. n/t

[iceman66]

9. The economy is just going to get worse

the more Republicans get elected.

What an incredibly short memory voters in this country have!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

17. I Need To Go Back And Study FDR

And see how the party did during those economic times.

[treestar]

10. OK, so maybe they think the government involvement thing is not working

and they want to go back to laissez faire capitalism so that's why they elected a republican?

I hope they don't complain that the government isn't helping them out.

They were the ones who chose a Republican. Better pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

[KamaAina]

12. Why does that even matter?

Jim Bunning (R-Paleolithic Era) literally slept through his campaign and still won.

Even a dishwater DLCer is better than a damned teabagger. Anyone who thinks otherwise is part of the problem.

[Faryn Balyncd]

14. It was the no-public-option MANDATE - the biggest open-ended tax hike in US history, and . . . . . .

......to be collected by and for a cartel.

[kenny blankenship]

16. yes the economy is factor number 1 in whether people like the direction things are going

but perception that "it's business as usual" on Wall St. and "the fix is in" in Washington has a big influence on how people react to their economic pain. People were in pain 14 months ago in 2008 and they responded eagerly to a promise of Change with a capital "C". Voters do not have finely graded scorecards to express their approval or disapproval of how the political leadership is handling their concerns with easily separable scores for different issues and subissues. They can either approve and reinforce, or they can reject the agenda of the current party and leadership in power. In this case, with the state being Massachusetts and the Senate seat at issue being Ted Kennedy's - there's no electoral scenario with heavier symbolism than what we just witnessed. Ted Kennedy's seat just went to an undistinguished wingnut Republican. It's not a repudiation of Teddy one of the most liberal members in the history of the Senate, but it is a withering repudiation of the Democratic Party.

Republicans were fired up, but there wasn't equal urgency on the Democratic side, obviously. People promised capital C change in 2008 and who voted overwhelmingly for change have now clearly not voted to reinforce it. There's no getting around the problem that they do not believe in it in the same way. And some of them have apparently voted to reject it along with Republicans who naturally never wanted it in the first place. What does this loss of belief mean? Given that very little has actually happened except that Washington has spent almost an entire year watering down and whittling down a health care reform proposal from bold change to thin gruel to insurance racket giveaway- and the fact outside of that one area most Bush policies have simply been continued, I think it's clear that many people don't believe change materialized, is going to materialize, was ever going to materialize.

We're seeing a fairly predictable outcome when people in desperation are promised change, and then after the election they don't see change on the scale they thought they were promised.