Face it....MA DID NOT vote for Brown because Obama is not Liberal enough!!!!

[KansasVoter]

If they thought that then no way they elect a GOP idiot!

How can anyone here think this means we need to be more progressive?

Makes no sense!!!

[Clio the Leo]

1. Exactly. NT

[CTLawGuy]

2. we lost

because Martha Chokeley blew it big time.

[GMA]

3. Oh, you are in so much trouble now.

Here come the obscenities... But not from me.

[HughMoran]

37. :o)

You know it ;)

[DJ13]

4. So you're saying MA isnt liberal?

[KansasVoter]

6. Remember Romney?

[quiller4]

41. Not particularly outside of major cities. Look at opinion surveys.

The majority say they are moderate. In recent surveys a larger number self-identify as conservative than liberal. That isn't true just in Republican polls. PPP shows that rightward opinion shift, too.

[WeDidIt]

5. Yep, MA has guaranteed this country just took a right turn

HArd right.

Guaranteed.

[krabigirl]

8. Hmm...not sure. I feel the same way about CA (prop 8 anyone), but look at Iowa.

I think things are shifting around. The rural voters in MA are NOT liberals, and I'd think many others aren't, either.

[panader0]

7. So they did vote for Brown because Obama is liberal enough?

Those double negatives always throw me.

[gravity]

9. The GOP was better organized and ran a better campaign

Plain and simple

[thatsrightimirish]

10. what has Obama done that is too liberal?

encouraging the public option be dropped? Caving to Olympia Snowe and Ben Nelson on stimulus funding?

[sandnsea]

12. I disagree with the OP - but...

From a Republican or moderate perspective: raising any tax at all, expanding SCHIP, Lily Ledbetter, any gay rights, the public option, increased pell grants, expanded unemployment, created more wilderness, and on and on.

[TankLV]

53. Not to mention all the "bipartisanship" crap jammed down our throats...

Riiiight...

If anything, it proves that the "bipartisanship" crap - was crap...

[GOTV]

11. If he won because liberal voters stayed home then that IS what it means.

I don't know if that's why Brown won but it's a possibility

[PolNewf]

18. High turnout n/t

[kenny blankenship]

22. Doesn't mean that Democrats voted for the Democrat.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

27. So liberals voted for the Republican? They didn't vote for the libertarian.

[GOTV]

23. Possibly not among all demographics

[quiller4]

40. I don't think liberals stayed home. Coakley got the liberal vote.

She did not get moderate Democrats or moderate Independents and Kennedy always got both.

[treestar]

13. +1000

I remember repukes claiming McCain lost because he was too liberal. Same thing. makes no sense.

[golfguru]

14. My take on why Scott Brown won

He was better in debates. Remember that question from David Gergen...asking him
how he feels about taking Kennedy's seat and vote against HCR? Brown lucked out
with the best response any one can.."this is people's seat" I think that resonated
with voters.

His poll numbers started going up the next day.

Good news is he will have to run again in 2 years, and will lose it in 2012.

[CitizenLeft]

16. 2012 - I had forgotten that he has to run again in 2 years.

Thank you. You found the silver lining I was searching for. :)

[demwing]

15. The message is clear, to those who can hear

don't take the left for granted, or you'll end up with your worst nightmare.

Is it a huge threat to the left agenda? NOPE, special election. The seat comes up again in two years.

if Mass went further left, the party would go to the right to balance. Instead, Mass goes right, the party FREAKS, and heads back left where we belong.

We can piss about it now, or be glad we got a taste of defeat here, and really hear the message, while there's still time to prepare.

[PolNewf]

19. So delusional n/t

[demwing]

50. Yeah, well, your argument is nonexistent, let alone invalid.

[TankLV]

54. Exactly!!!

thank you...

[Overseas]

17. YES THEY DID. They were angry at Dems for kissing GOP ass so much.

For giving up all the best parts of health care reform to get that damn Olympia Snowe vote.

For having to beg their own Blue Dogs to vote with the party.

For bailing out bankers without even giving the public a significant bailout like freedom from medical terror.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

26. So they hated the Dems so much for kissing GOP ass, they voted for the GOP?

I prefer to think that Massachusetts folks aren't that stupid.

[FVZA_Colonel]

29. I don't understand this line of "logic."

Given historical precedent, it's more likely enough Democrats will move more to the right that it will be even more difficult to get progressive legislation passed.

Given how Webb and Bayh are behaving, it seems to be starting already.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

30. It's not logic, it's wishful thinking.

[Overseas]

45. That's not logical. Look what grovelling for one republican vote got them so far.

Diddly squat.

Groveling to pretend you're bipartisan because Olympia voted with you once got them a whole slew of angry or disengaged voters. Not at all effective.

Think about how the election could have gone if the Democrats had banded together all the way to push through an effective public option. Coakley would win by 70+%.

[FVZA_Colonel]

47. And the idea that, out of dissatisfaction with Democratic conservativism, people would elect someone

even more conservative does?

[Overseas]

51. Not logical as I said. Stupid way to protest. Shooting themselves in the foot.

Brown apparently didn't mention he was Republican in his ads. He knew Republicans were even less popular than Democrats.

Hope Democrats are ready before the 2010 elections, to be sure the voters in their states know which candidates are from the Part of No and the Party of the Worst Presidency in US History.

[FVZA_Colonel]

61. I'm sorry, it was late and I may have misread parts of your post.

I think he really did play down his connections to the broader Teabagger-esque philosophy of the GOP right now, and tried to convince people he may have even been a liberal Republican in the vein of Rockefeller and Dewey.

And you are right that Democrats need to take this as a wake up call and actually fight this November (and for the right things, to boot), and not just expect to coast to victory.

[GOTV]

35. They might have stayed home. If the bus isn't going your way ...

... it doesn't matter if it gets there late or early.

If you don't think the president is serving your agenda, it doesn't matter if he gets more or less help.

[Overseas]

44. They may have been That Angry. //nt

[enfield collector]

20. well we're still ocupying iraq, afganistan and we're still torturing people

in gitmo, so yeah he's not Liberal enough in fact he's just like bush.

[ShortnFiery]

21. We need to be LESS CORPORATE. We need to Stand for "The People." eom

[frazzled]

25. And the remedy to that is to elect Republicans?

Go sit in the corner with the dunce cap on.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

31. *cough*

I think part of my tortilla went up my nose.

[OnyxCollie]

36. In 2008, people wanted change and elected Democrats.

Trouble was, change looked like the same old shit. Along comes a Repub who says, "Vote for me! I'm CHANGE!"

I'll let you guess how that turned out, genius.:dunce:

[Overseas]

46. Sadly, it is no remedy. It is a really sad consequence of their anger and disappointment.

Their yearning for significant change was so strong that seeing the Democrats sell out their party platform to pretend to be bipartisan was so disgusting that they voted in anger.

And yes, they will probably hate Scott Brown.

Imagine how angry they must have been to make that awful choice.

Now imagine how the vote might have gone if all the Democrats banded together to make Teddy's lifelong dream a reality and keep a public option alive in the healthcare reform legislation.

Coakley would have soared to victory.

[Clear Blue Sky]

24. Bingo!

If he moves further left, next November will be a bloodbath. Move to the center and at least get something accomplished and maybe hold Congress and the WH.

[ibegurpard]

28. Move to the center?

Are you under the mistaken impression he's been governing from the left?
Been listening to too much talk radio?

[Clear Blue Sky]

32. It's all relative.

To many Americans, he is reaching too far and too fast.

DU unfortunately is not representative of the country as a whole.

[HughMoran]

33. ...neither does unreccing your thread when you're clearly right

This is about an emotional attachment to an ideal.

[marlakay]

34. I heard it was infighting between dems in MA

who didn't like Coakley. There is a thread on Daily Kos talking about it. Said the big city Boston dems didn't like her and wouldn't help her campaign and even the major of Boston never stood up for her.

[quiller4]

42. The mayor of Boston campaigned for her more than she campaigned for herself!

[quiller4]

38. The Ds I phoned who were not voting for Coakley were protesting

because they thought Dems were too liberal spending too much money and raising taxes. There was much blurring between MA state house and US Congress. Coakley was being blamed for what voters saw as excess in both capitals. I was picking up a strong, conservative anti-incumbent sentiment from blue collar Ds I called.

[lumberjack_jeff]

39. Populism. Populism. POPULISM. pop-ulism. popUlism.

Technocrats are going to be the death of us.

[goodgd_yall]

43. I do think that's what's missing

Independents liked that part of Obama's message that sounded populist. He has done nothing populist since he's been elected.

[inthebrain]

48. You keep that up

LOL

Understand this, Brown won this election DEFENDING MEDICARE!!!!! That was part of it.

The other is that we already have Obama's corporatist healthcare plan in this state. It's been a disaster. It's Romney's plan. The Democrats have had a problem in this state brewing for awhile. Tonight it really reared it's ugly head.

The Democrats lost tonight becuase they MOVED TO THE RIGHT. You can barely tell the Reps and the Dems apart in this states. They've both cut back on services and laid off government workers by the boatload. Couple that with the losses in the private sector.

The voters, with Coakley, found themselves with their backs against the wall.

[HughMoran]

58. Completely wrong

This thinking will lose ALL of out seats! :rofl:

[DrToast]

49. It's very simple

People like people fight for what they believe in.

Republicans fight.

Democrats don't.

[ShortnFiery]

52. Brown played down his GOP cred. and ran as "an independent." eom

[RBInMaine]

55. Coakley ran a very shitty campaign. End of story.

[niceypoo]

56. They voted in a conservative because the Dem wasn't liberal enough?

Something not right with that logic....

[Jersey Devil]

57. It wasn't about ideology - It was about action

Dems promised "change" - that they'd do something, but they did nothing. So they punished those who broke their promises to them and, yes, by electing someone who happened to be conservative and not reflective of all their beliefs but who at least was not from the same group that had double crossed them only one year ago.

[LaydeeBug]

59. bullshit. We gave them a choice between a repig and a wannabe repig, and THAT is why we lost. nt

[TheKentuckian]

60. In a two party system non-partisans have only one option to express displeasure for whatever reason

and it is to "vote the bums out".

Are we taking on special interests and putting people first or do we continue to work toward the goals of the big banks, the insurance cartel, pharma, the military industrial complex?

The real self deception is that we have produced for working people or have really moved the needle on corporate influence. The second is that we can just move along the spectrum in an effort to curry favor. People won't trust anyone with malleable values, if you won't stand by what you are claiming to believe in your heart of hearts then you won't stand by me is what anyone would think.

I also don't get the desire to evade giving the voters an actual choice instead of being as indistinguishable from the opposition as possible. Sure, sometimes folks will take the other choice and you take your lumps but that allows you the license to do what you say you want to do when the pendulum swings the other way.

The elusive independents seem so elusive because there is a school of thought that believes there is some magic formula of positions that will lock them in forever but it would seem that the possibility that there are people who when they feel things are going in the wrong direction that they simply switch horses and if that one doesn't ride the way they like then they'll switch back.

These people have been "throwing the bums out" for about six years and it didn't start and it won't end because of some perfect left/right blend hasn't been reached but because they feel their interests are not being served, their money wasted, and the future less than encouraging. I suspect no matter how conservative, liberal, moderate, or centrist any party or politician is there will be a revolving door effect until people feel their needs and desires are being properly dealt with and they feel a restoration of a basic sense of security.

Talking left and right is a bunch of avoidance. The questions should be what are we going to do to make the people's lot in life better, how do we make sure they know we have done their business, and how do we gain and maintain the trust of those we serve?

Less focus on the game, more on the work, and the resolve and integrity to get 'er done is the ticket not tactics and triangulation.

Also, the old saying that the proof is in the pudding is always in effect. Show them the money aka the results, we claim to believe in governance and action but from the ground level its the same story of taking care of the wealthy and crapping on working people and our bar is higher because we supposedly claim to be on the side of the people.

The lesser of two evils pitch only holds partisans, if we want success then we have to be at least the acceptable if not the decent or the good.