anyone who denies that this election is a referendum on Obama is blind . . .

[OneBlueSky]

the people who elected Obama are beyond disallusioned, myself included . . . he promised to end the wars, and to reform healthcare and include a strong public option (e.g. opening Medicare to everyone) . . . instead, he sent thousands more troops to Afghanistan and is backing a healthcare bill that virtually everyone I've talked to hates with a passion . . . people despise being told that they have to buy something, and from specified suppliers -- none of whom, btw, have any interest at all in improving healthcare, or in healthcare at all . . . they're in in for the money, and people know it . . . the bank bonusess aren't helping either . . .

the people I know are pissed at Obama, and want to punish him . . . they were expecting change, and they got more of the same -- in some cases, possibly even worse than Obama's predecessor . . . it's not a large sample, but it's a representative one, I believe . . .

on edit: the town I lived in for 15 years, Amesbury, went 60% for Obama, and 57% for Brown . . . if that doesn't tell you something, pay better attention . . .

[cali]

1. that's called projection, dear. you are the blind one.

Obama still has positive ratings in MA. The evidence- and there's a shitload of it- is that this race hinged largely on local issues, including but not limited to: Corruption of MA dem politicians on the state level (big story in MA), an epically bad campaign run by a lousy candidate who felt entitled to the seat, a very good campaign by her opponent, anger at high taxes, job creation which brown focused on far more than coakley.

[regnaD kciN]

5. Projection, big-time...

And, may I add, as long as we persist in highlighting every perceived failure of Obama's administration, while dismissing any successes and good that it's done, how can we hope to win in the future? By proclaiming "yeah, we hate our President, but maybe he's a little bit better than Dubya...maybe?"

Sorry, but I make no apologies for backing Obama. Do you remember what it was like before he took office? There was about a fifty-fifty chance that we'd be in the middle of the Great Depression 2.0 by now. As far as I'm concerned, his pulling us back from that brink is enough to justify his Presidency right there. As was his job turning us away from the "America versus the rest of the world" foreign policy of Bush & Cheney. And, while I'm not enthusiastic about the way the HCR bill wound up, even passing it now would improve the health-care situation over what it is now...and lays the necessary groundwork for a true public option plan in the future.

But, if all we do is find fault and stomp our feet and pout because everything hasn't turned out exactly as we wished -- if we use that to bash President Obama and describe him as a "failure" or a "traitor," are you going to be surprised when voters go along with those labeling him in the same terms, but from a drastically-different direction?

[greenbird]

8. +1

[Chulanowa]

21. "Do you remember what it was like before he took office?"

Half of these dumbfucks think Obama started the Iraq war. You're really asking if any of 'em remember what it was like before he took office? Of course they don't. Jesus christ, most of them don't even have any awareness of what he's been like IN the office. They just know he hasn't met their hyperinflated expectations in a single year.

[blogslut]

2. I disagree

Martha Coakely ran a terrible campaign.

The "representative sample" of people who believe Obama is worse than Bush is made up of teabaggers and pumas who have no concept of reality.

[regnaD kciN]

3. How can it be a "referendum on Obama" when he has 60% approval in Massachusetts?:

:wtf:

[Sherman A1]

4. Okay I am blind then

and completely disagree with you. No election is about a single thing and your answers are as varied as each voter. It was about Obama, it was about HCR, it was about the economy, it was about throw the bums out, it was about "I didn't go to vote", it was about the State Democratic Party monkeying with the replacement process, it was about it's sunny today, it was about it's cloudy today, it was about Iraq, it was about Social Security, it was about being organized and not being so. :banghead:

[regnaD kciN]

6. Also, I doubt it had much to do with HCR...

...since Massachusetts already has a similar, state-run individual-mandate plan (although one with less protection for the insured than the Senate bill), and polls show it is quite popular there. Go figure.

:shrug:

[DrDan]

9. but . . . any additional costs for HCR would then be shared

and would bring nothing additional to Mass.

[eridani]

10. That's because 85% of the population is never going to get expensively sick

It's popular for the same reasons that their fire extinguishers are popular. They've never actually used either, and assume that they are protected in case of emergency.

MA is an absolutely devastating place for older and chronically ill people to live--you know, the disposable human garbage that no one gives a shit about.

[DrDan]

7. largely anecdotal - but why I saw agrees with you

very disappointed with Washington DC (read Obama and the D's) and a strong desire to vote against them.

[demoleft]

11. if the dem candidate had won - would you say the same, "referendum on obama"? n/t

[still_one]

12. I have a different take, it tells me that the country is far more right wing then I would like to

believe

[paulsby]

13. YOU are blind

he DID not promise to end "the wars"

he made it abudantly clear that he though afghanistan was a good war, and that he had every intention to fight it vigorously.
if you can't even get BASIC and inarguable facts such as this correct, in the first sentence no less, how can you possibly expect your analysis to ring true?

mego, when i saw that blatant falsehood and you lost me, and anybody who cares about accuracy then and there.

hth

[democracy1st]

15. Goldman Sachs admin !

[NNN0LHI]

14. Did you already forget what happened here when opening Medicare to everyone was proposed?

When everyone seen the cost to buy into Medicare they went completely nuts.

Everyone wanted a strong public option (e.g. opening Medicare to everyone), but no one wanted to pay for it. They apparently thought it was going to be free? Did you forget that already?

Short memory or what?

Don

[midnight]

22. The increase costs in Medicare were created most recently. The idea of Free Health care was created

a long time ago....

Both Republicans and Democrats have consistently been in agreement with the $500 billion cut in funds for Medicare Advantage programs. They have never seriously questioned, or publicly debated that decision. (See my previous article “Health Care Reform and the Skinning of Seniors” www.counterpunch.org/cramer11242009.html). If you don’t understand the consensus around this issue, then you really do not understand the purpose of the health insurance makeover bill now being debated. Were you also listening to the President’s promises and dire warnings broadcast to the nation as he stood surrounded by Senate Democratic leaders?

This attempt to make low-income elderly and their “wasteful” Medicare Advantage programs the butt of demands for health care overhaul has been the focus of a disinformation campaign from the beginning.

This attempt to make low-income elderly and their “wasteful” Medicare Advantage programs the butt of demands for health care overhaul has been the focus of a disinformation campaign from the beginning.http://openmediaboston.org/node/1076


Roosevelt (1944): The right to adequate medical care, and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.

A year later, in his fourth term, Roosevelt died in office. It was his vice president, Harry Truman, who took the next step. Truman was the first president to ask for a specific plan for universal coverage. http://www.kplu.org/health_care_script.html

The model of accessing affordable health care via medicare was a model that was cited because of affordability, but I'm not sure for free unless income disparity was an issue. However, that element of afforadability has been disappearing via donuts, and other mechanisms that have been dismantling the very integrity of this Medicare system.

[cali]

16. I see the op has scuttled off. how unsurprising.

[Coyote_Bandit]

17. Obama got elected

by selling a message of hope and change.

Unfortunately he - and the Dems who control both the House and the Senate - haven't delivered change - or transparency. Because of that hope is faltering.

There is going to be a backlash. The 2012 election - and to a lesser extent the upcoming mid-term elections - will be about substance not rhetoric.

Unless Dems manage to deliver some substantive positive changes to everyday flesh and blood citizens from many different walks of life Dems will get their butt kicked in those elections.

That's really too bad. To date, the Obama administration has delivered little more than a lost opportunity.

[cali]

18. Obama is popular in MA.

this was largely about Coakley and the terrible campaign she ran.

[midnight]

19. I was hoping to hear from someone who voted in this race....

It sounds like the past year has been all about making the banks happy... I know that there have been other issues, but this seems to have occupied the talks. That said the banks are receiving record bounuses... That is hard to square with many families who live pay check to pay check... Also I think that these working families wanted the heavy drain of this war to come to a close too. If that war was ended the brink that this country is tetering on could come to a quicker end.... But the straw to break the back of the voters has got to be this health care bill.

[cali]

20. Coakely ran against the banks and wall street

and tried to frame brown as being in cahoots with them. didn't seem to resonate, did it?