Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Republican Scott Brown Stuns Washington and Bay State Dems

Scott Brown just won a major victory in Massachusetts in the fight to replace Ted Kennedy’s vacant seat in the U.S. Senate, defeating Martha Coakley by a margin of 5% at the time of this writing. This victory is enormously significant and has implications far beyond the boundaries of what is perhaps the bluest of blue states in the nation.

President Barack Obama’s filibuster-proof majority in the Senate has been broken. A post-election focus group indicated that one reason for Coakley’s defeat is her staunch support of the Obama administration’s healthcare proposal now in the hands of U.S. House of Representative’s leader, Nancy Pelosi.

Logically, this defeat should shock Mr. Obama into workable bi-partisanship. But don’t bet the farm on it: He and his chief advisors can be expected to hunker down even more now, and to railroad the legislation through the Congress. Hope I’m wrong about that.

More later on as to why Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown’s victory isn’t nearly the surprise to me that it seems to be to so many people who may not understand the psyche of Bay State voters.

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