Wow. Scott Brown won. In Massachusetts. Despite the best efforts of the national Dems, Obama, and SEIU.
What does it mean? Not what most Republicans think.
Scott Brown won because he is a great campaigner, and he wasn't afraid to meet the people. Martha Coakley, not so much. Scott Brown won, not because he was a Republican, and not just because of healthcare, but because he put himself out there and asked the voters to judge him.
And that's why Robin and Russ Carnahan, and a whole host of other Democrats, are going to be weeping into their hands in November. They're afraid of us because they know they can't stand the scrutiny.
Republicans should be careful. They need to understand the true meaning of Scott Brown's amazing victory. He won, for the same reasons Christie and McDonnell, and another politician by the name of Obama won. The electorate is indeed hungry for change - they want open, sane people in office. They want those who they trust in difficult times, and that means campaigning, and then governing in a responsible manner.
Obama is failing this test. His support was always a mile wide and an inch think, but his stratospheric ratings came from people who believed he was going to cut government waste, open up negotiations, shut down fat cats, and treat his political opponents with respect. He has done none of those things. Instead, he turned to the 30 and 40 year veterans of the House and Senate, old socialist bulls who were in power in the 70's and 80's, and let them run the show, with him as the increasingly ineffective cheerleader. Obama failed to lead. And now we correctly see him as part of the problem. A new face on the old problem of crony capitolism.
Republicans now have the wonderfully named "41 for Freedom." As they sweep forward to new electoral successes, they should remember one essential truth that Obama never learned.
They are not there to rule, but to govern. They can fail in their legislative endeavors, but if they fail honorably, they won't be blamed. Democrats were punished because they don't really care what we think. If incumbent Republicans, and the newly chastened Democrats don't get that, 2010 will be the largest class of freshman in many generations.
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