| Author | Message | ||
     Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1870 Registered: 10-2004 |
The seat held by Ted Kennedy for all these years has been taken by a Republican. The Democrat filibuster-proof majority is now officially dead, and I predict it will shrink even more come November. Was this really the result of knee-jerk voter frustration, or was Coakley asleep at the wheel? But then, Dems never truly had that 60 seat majority anyhow, what with scum-sucking Lieberman in the way. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 290 Registered: 02-2007 |
Sounds like US system of govt is organised in such a way as to thwart any real change. Has the ground swell of support for Obama evaporated or is was it over stated to begin with? | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2245 Registered: 03-2005 |
I don't know the answer to that question David, except to say that the crappy economy remains crappy and ultimately that will trump everything with voters. The Dems have done their classic act of throwing away the opportunities for accomplishment while they have the government. They did the same thing during Clinton's first two years. Obama has almost certainly been far too accommodating to the Wall Street set; that's where a lot of the anger is coming from now. The housing bubbles on the two coasts have been left inflated so that people of modest means literally cannot afford to live in either area and employers cannot stay in either area because of the inflated housing costs. Hence huge states like California twist in the wind. I blame Obama's economic team for failing to recognize this and focusing all their concern on the banks. That's a huge mistake politically and economically. If he doesn't shift gears and become the new Roosevelt real soon he's out in 2012 regardless of what awful character the Republicans put up. That's certainly what I wanted him to be but right now he's looking more like Hoover. Health care reform was distorted into a big give-away to insurance companies, and as it turns out it's not really the issue people are concerned about at the moment. People need to work. The official unemployment rate is 10%. The U.S. plays games to distort their official number. That number leaves out a lot of people including those working part-time because they have no choice and those who've fallen off the unemployment rolls because they've been unemployed too long to collect benefits any longer. The true umemployment rate is north of 15% and possibly approaching 20%. No, it's not as bad as the Great Depression but, yes, it's rivaling the oil-shock induced recessions in the mid and late 70s and early 80s. Those bad times brought us Reagan. But, yes, the U.S. governmental system is designed for gridlock. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1871 Registered: 10-2004 |
Plus, Coakley ran a horrible campaign, by all accounts. Here's a quote of hers when criticized for not campaigning enough: “As opposed to standing outside Fenway Park? In the cold? Shaking hands?’’ she fired back, in an apparent reference to a Brown online video of him doing just that. Hell yeah, you stand in the freezing cold and shake hands, especially when you're filling the seat of Ted Fucking Kennedy, the liberal senator who had for years advocated major health care overhaul!!! Talk about stinging irony. Kennedy is turning in his grave, as his party has just crapped on it. But despite Coakley's lackluster campaign, the Democrats really do need to see this as a major wake-up call. And it's interesting because George W. Bush spent 8 years doing more or less whatever the fuck he wanted with less than a 60% senate majority. But in the end, Democrats never really had that 60 seat senate majority to begin with. It was mind-bloggling naivety thinking they could count on Lieberman. As for getting around the gridlock, I wonder if eliminating the filibuster would help. How often did Democrats filibuster during Bush's two terms? | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1725 Registered: 01-2005 |
I just finished Ted's autobiograpy True Compass on election day. After reading it I have to agree with Jeff about Coakley. Coakley and her campaign staff were total amatures. Had they had someone like Bob Shrum running the campaign she would have won. Bob ran Ted Kennedy's 1994 campaign against Mitt Romney. I think the US Senate is totally dysfunctional these days and needs to be fixed. I believe it's time to take a hard look at changing the 60 Senate votes to pass legislation to something like 55 votes. Jeff, the use of the filibuster has gotten out way out of hand as well and needs to be changed back to what it used to be. Fat chance of anything happening though with 67 votes needed to change Senate procedecure. |