82% of Obama Voters who Voted for Brown in MA Support the Public Option (~10% of total vote)

[jsamuel]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/20/827621/-82-of-Obama-Voters-who-Voted-for-Brown-in-MA-Support-the-Public-Option

Obama voters who voted for Brown:

82% support for Public Option
32% support for Baucus Bill


Obama voters who stayed home:

86% support for Public Option
34% support for Baucus Bill

The point to draw from this, in my opinion, is not that people voted based on Brown's votes, but because of frustration (in part) with not getting things done the way they were promised (not bringing change).

If my calculations are correct, this represents about 10-12% of all votes cast in the election. More than enough to make the difference. http://act.boldprogressives.org/cms/sign/mapollresults/

85% of "Obama voters who voted for Brown" are independents.
89% of "Obama voters who stayed home" are Democrats.

It is entirely possible that voters voted for Brown or stayed home to punish Democrats for not passing a Public Option.

[DrDan]

1. wonder if the WH is aware of this . . . . (of course they are)

[Faryn Balyncd]

38. "If Barack Obama’s bill gets changed to exclude the public entities, it is not...reform" Howard Dean

"If Barack Obama’s bill gets changed to exclude the public entities, it is not health insurance reform…it rises and falls on whether the public is allowed to choose Medicare if they’re under 65 or not. If they are allowed to choose Medicare as an option, this bill will be real health care reform...."

- Howard Dean

[jpak]

2. There is a 100% chance that Brown will vote against the Public Option

if he ever gets a chance

sorry

[jsamuel]

6. absolutely

the point to draw from this, then, is not that people voted based on Brown's votes, but because of frustration (in part) with not getting things done the way they were promised (not bringing change)

[jpak]

10. If that's the case - those people are idiots and voted against their own self-interest

and they will not get any progressive votes from Brown - evah

[jsamuel]

12. these people are probably not progressives (85% are independents)

[BR_Parkway]

15. Because holding their nose and voting for someone who doesn't do

squat has worked out so well in the past. They're not idiots, they're exercising the only power left to them when the folks they sent to work on their behalf doing the opposite because they have no other "option".

Just ask the LGBT community, we've been through the "promise and forget" cycle we look just like the classical definition of battered wife syndrome

[jpak]

Sorry - Martha would have done "squat" - just like Teddy

and now they have a LGBT-friendly teabagger with a curling iron!!111

What are people smoking here?

:rofl:

[BR_Parkway]

39. It's not the tea-bagger who needed to wake up, it's the majority party

who can't get anything done. Sorry, they like to pretend they can't as they go back on their promises in search of the corporate dollars.

[cascadiance]

16. Perhaps they felt that voting for him would make him irrelevant if filibuster rule gets nuked...

... as a result of this election's results. This election will force some hard decisions to embrace something like reconciliation or nuking of filibuster rules that should have been done earlier.

Ultimately, we'll replace Brown later, just like Minnesota replaced Coleman eventually.

[jpak]

22. Wow - that's a stretch

nice try though

:rofl:

:hi:

[Hawkowl]

30. Irrationality is the NORM

People are irrational all the time. The mistake is believing that most people sit down and run cold, cost-benefit analysis on politicians.

This election was a full fledged temper tantrum. It doesn't have to make sense. It was to be expected.

What the Democratic Party leaders need to do is internalize this election and then extrapolate that they are going to get a thermonuclear TEMPER TANTRUM in November unless they start lavishing attention on the base. THE BASE WINS ELECTIONS. Not by their numbers but by their passion in motivating others to turn out in a positive bit of irrationality.

[Ian David]

13. Thank you, Captain Obvious.

[jpak]

24. cute kitty!

:hi:

[laughingliberal]

23. There was 100% chance that the public option would not be in any bill coming up for a final vote nt

[ObamaKerryDem]

3. And yet they voted for an anti-reform Repub..

:thumbsdown:

:banghead:

[jpak]

7. Yup - they got themselves a curliing-iron-armed teabagger

idiots

[hfojvt]

29. 100% of them are apparently total fucking idiots

[leeroysphitz]

40. That isn't really fair. There are only TWO parties.

If people are unhappy with one party they only have three choices: A stay home, B vote for the "other" party or C keep voting for the party that is making them unhappy.

Those are pretty crappy choices and there is no reason to act surprised that folks chose A and B.

[KingFlorez]

4. Very telling

[mmonk]

5. It could be 100% for a public option but we aren't going to get it.

This isn't a democracy it seems.

[Faryn Balyncd]

8. We need to digest this, and make a major course correction....K and R

:hi:




Kick:

[jsamuel]

18. I think this just confirms what many progressives have been saying.

It is not that progressives won't be there, but that independents will vote for Republicans if Democrats don't follow up on progressive policies.

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. fascinating stuff. K&R n/t

[AspenRose]

11. Wow.

[Doctor_J]

14. So after a moment of clarity, they've gone back to OozeBeckistan

brainwashed, bone-ignorant Palinites.

[Karenina]

17. Stupid on display

all over the world. It's just.so.sad... I'm an o'lady who has NEVER been able to figure out why folks choose competition/violence over cooperation/peace. I've also watched as the American body politic has been poisoned by the aforementioned. I expected Brown's victory and weep for the land of my birth... :cry:

[Better Believe It]

19. President Obama opposed the public option. Is that a problem?

[jsamuel]

20. Obama did not oppose a public option.

He may not have fought hard for it, but I wouldn't say he opposed it. It was part of his campaign in 2008.

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/index.php

Offers a public health insurance option to provide the uninsured and those who can’t find affordable coverage with a real choice.

[laughingliberal]

26. It was becoming obvious by August the President didn't want the PO

and he has already come out and told us our eyes and ears deceived us, that he did NOT campaign on a public option.

[jsamuel]

28. that is true

Obama doesn't want to be seen as 'losing' anything. So instead he just backtracks as to what he supported in the first place.

[Better Believe It]

35. So it was no big deal to abandon the public option.

[jsamuel]

36. It was a big deal

I just don't think he actually opposed it. He turned on it for political expediency. That is not a good thing in my eyes either.

[Doctor_J]

21. Electorally savvy repukes could turn this into a coup

If the Senate was to now pass a SPO, McConnell and the rest of of the Repukes could claim it was because of them and take credit for the success.

[LynneSin]

25. Then they deserve what they get for being a single issue voter

Because there is alot more damage that Brown can do other than HCR.

[jsamuel]

27. this is not a lesson for the voters, it should be a lesson for Democrats in general

[LynneSin]

32. Are you kidding me? That's how PA ended up with Rick Santorum

and trust me, one issue NEVER justified that man getting elected as a senator. NOT ONE ISSUE OUT THERE.

Scott Brown was not elected to vote on one issue - he was elected to vote on ALL issues.

Voters reap what they sow. Let's just hope Massachusetts doesn't screw up and run a week candidate against him in 2012. Santorum should have been 'One and Done'

[jsamuel]

34. its not the voters fault

it is never the voters fault

It is the activists and the politicians fault, always. Voters are the boss, either you didn't convince them well enough to see things your way or you aren't doing what your boss is telling you to do.

In this case, we convinced them to see things our way (Public Option) and then didn't do what they told us to do (Public Option).

[Ganja Ninja]

31. How did we get stuck on this "public option" crap?

This is never what the left wanted now it's all we get to talk about. We need to get back to talking single payer. We need a real left wing solution not this watered down substitute. And if we can't get exactly what we want then we shouldn't except it. The liberals will own health care if they pass reform. Shouldn't it be a real liberal reform bill and not some half-assed half measure we never wanted in the first place? Except no reform unless its liberal reform. In the end we'll take the blame good or bad.

[jsamuel]

37. well

because we don't have the votes for single payer right now.

We may have the votes for a medicare expansion though. I am all for seeing if we do.

[Faryn Balyncd]

33. Most imporatant post . . . . . . . Thanks!