Barack Obama is only one part of the problem

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Was the MA election a referendum on Barack Obama?

No... it was a referendum on THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

Coakley ran a bad campaign but if the Democratic Party was as popular as it was a year ago it would not have mattered whether she campaigned at all. So blaming her is literally true, but misses the point. A lot of Dems who won in 2006 and 2008 ran bad campaigns but won anyway. A lot of pugs won almost accidentally in 1994.

Obama is the top Dem so he gets disproportionate blame and credit for what the party does, and properly so. He is the Party's leader and the Party has dived into the toilet under his leadership.

But it's about the Democratic Party... the combination of WH, congress and even some state-level pols.

The people are not upset that we are spending so much money. They are upset that we are spending so much money without clearly and dramatically changing their environment and circumstances. They are not feeling the benefits.

One can say they *should* be feeling it... one can produce lists of programs and tables of big numbers to show they *should* be feeling it.

But if they are not feeling it then that's what it is. It's a problem to be solved.

There is nothing we can do to reduce the deficit in the near-term without destroying this country. Deficit spending is all that is propping up our economy. (Even raising taxes on the rich is little help. That can improve the justice of the situation but would actually hurt the economy right now. The deficit is not a by-product of stimulus. It IS the stimulus. Keynes, people... the deficit is not a side-effect, it... is... the... point.

So, since one option is foreclosed (reducing the deficit anytime soon would wreck us all) then the only choices are:

1) To play politics, flailing for middle-ground non-solutions calculated to appease two totally contradictory views, which is impossible unless one thinks we can fool all the people all of the time, or...

2) Accept that we must spend and focus on spending big on things that people feel... programs calculated to be felt.

As the song says...

"Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative. Don't mess with Mister In-Between."

[ShortnFiery]

1. Obama's our leader - he sets the tone. It's time to be less risk adverse. eom

[Captain Hilts]

2. Good one to quote the Johnny Mercer song! It's mostly the Dems' fault, but Obama picked Kaine, etc.

and it was the Kaine/Obama-led party that let Al Franken twist in the wind.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

4. Wow... Johnny Mercer. You're right.

[treestar]

3. Reality has to be acknowledged at some point

We can spend, but we can't spend fast enough or it can't work fast enough.

But the Indies who voted for Brown said the deficit concerned them. So they want to reign in the spending. Top that off with that state already has their health care plan, and so the interests of the rest of us in one doesn't factor in.

So it looks like we won't get a health care plan.

What a perfect storm of awful facts. If Teddy had lived or Coakley and the Dems not taken the seat for granted, etc.