The voters of Massachusetts, who delivered a 26 percent majority to candidate Obama, have spoken: they are not a Republican majority but they sent a Republican to the US Senate yesterday. It is the one thing an election can do: send an up or down message. The message they sent is that they don't believe and they don't have confidence in the "jobless recovery". Much of the United States, and the northeast in particular, is mired in a Depression. It may not be The Great Depression, but it is not just A Great Recession (the moniker from the NY Times). Incumbents (and the mainstream media too) have a big stake in promoting positive narratives. Dismal narratives, like the ones we are glued to on this blog, don't sell advertisement. They are not good for business. But voters can't be blamed for being sick and tired of getting less for more. The American narrative is on its knees, notwithstanding the claims of a "recovery" (see the Miami Herald today, on Armando Codina's bright new development in Broward). While Obama, it is true, was dealt a horrendous hand of cards by his predecessor, he made a huge strategic mistake by not gathering energy around the core of the problem: the miscalculation of risk by Wall Street tied to unsustainable debt. That is what has created the greatest wealth divide in modern US history, piled enormous debt on taxpayers, deformed politics and turned Democrats and Republicans into a Unitary Party. Does President Obama have time, now, to go back and retrieve the only theme and narrative that can save the Democrats in the 2010 mid-term elections? He better work fast, because the same political interests who profited first from debt, fraud and this terrible economic crisis have put on wigs and fake beards: they are ready to roll.
10 comments:
The key now is jobs. The stimulus went to state and local governments, but no jobs were generated and no projects can be identified. The money disappeared. The federal government must now directly hire people, keep the job count themselves, and the listing of completed projects.
If the republicans get in power again they will completely destroy this country, and the little guy can forget it.
But, you omitted the Health Care debacle. From what I saw as a common thread on all three News Networks (yep, I channel surfed last night) were voters from all over MA not happy with legislation getting crammed down the throats of the people. The disregard of the people vs politicians with a super majority telling the people they know best. That's just anti American. Pollster from the left & right were coming up with the same responses. This wasn't a huge vote in support of Republicans, but more of a "no more crap" vote. Santa Claus could have probably won to be honest.
However, knowing Chicago politics, even when writing is on the wall to stop doing something bad, they'll continue because they stuck themselves into a corner and will not give up. That's the Chicago way, and that will get a lot of good Dem's thrown out of office in November.
So, those Dem's who want to go down with the ship, I hope you made enough off of the bail outs - you're going to need it!
And, Republican's, you're not safe either, now is not the time to get cocky!
What does President McCain think of all this?
Guess we'll find out Sunday.
To put it in the context of Miami, we have based our economy on building homes. Now those workers and the companies that have capital to spend and hands to work must look elsewhere. (Joblessness). Workers will need to work less for developers and more in commercial and residential markets on existing buildings. Some will leave their trades. (markets correcting themselves). Everyone's broke, so there's going to be a lag. (jobs catching up to recovery).
These things work for me: Crist going rabbit hunting and locking up crooked politicians, FHTD, tax credits for energy efficient improvements.
These things don't: Geithner's handing bucket loads of money to counter parties who would have accepted 40 to 60% on the dollar from AIG, conflicts of interest and incestuous dealings in Washington and a President who is letting this muddy his coat tails.
However, the jobless thing is not Obama's fault. It was a long time coming. You can't hang corporate greed on him. He didn't do that. (words spoken by a Republican)
what a wall of noise last night from the boob tube...I have friends up in Mass. and they all said the same thing - Ms Coakley was a dud and Mr Centerfold was saying all the right things...as we've all seen, most (all?) recent elections hinge on personality - not really what people are saying but how they say it. For Pete's sake, look at how many people voted for McCain because of Palin because they liked her, not him. Mr Brown was promising to fight for lower taxes and in this economic dung heap of a time, those are voting words..I don't buy into all the hoo-hah that it was about Dems vs Republicans etc etc...if you aren't working, or have a low paying job, lower taxes is music to your ears.
It wasn't about health care: Massachusetts already has a better state plan than Congress is considering.
It is about party politics. You don't give kennedy's seat to a Republican because you like his personality. This holds a much larger implication to the democratic future wins, or should I say losses.
Maybe it was about healthcare. They already have a good system so the voters in Mass. didn't give a damn about the rest of us.
The most important thing about last nights election was that it showed the voters fuses are getting VERY SHORT.
For Democrats they should head this as a warning that cutting special deals for unions while leaving the rest of us out to dry with some crappy health plan and mortaging our future with worthlesss stimulus money that ended up in banks or wallstreet anyway is not the answer.
For Republicans don't pop the cork yet Mr. Brown is a socially liberal and fiscally conservative republican, pull out that bible and you'll lose everything you might have to gain.
Mr. Brown got a majority of Indy votes and a few Dem votes and was smart enough to keep Palin and her ilk at bay.
He's pretty, but he came off a bit snarky for me. Did I say he's pretty. I am glad for the game change. I think the Dem's might actually be saved from themselves. If they can't get this done, they can blame the GOP. The sausage was not good. This way, they can stand down, blame the party of "no" for being obstructionist and still come out smelling like a rose saying "hey, we tried". I dunno. Am I the only who is thinking that some Dem's are privately a bit relieved?
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