By FITSNews || A Republican won “Ted Kennedy’s seat” in liberal Massachusetts Tuesday night, a stunning reversal of political fortune in a state that hadn’t sent a member of the GOP to the U.S. Senate in nearly four decades – and which only fourteen months ago elected Barack Obama by a 26 percentage point margin.
Yeah … let that sink in for a moment.
Riding a wave of independent support, Scott Brown came from 31 percent behind in the polls just two months ago (and 17 percent down two weeks ago) to defeat heavily-favored Democrat Martha Coakley by a 52-47 percent margin. Outspent by a 2-to-1 margin and competing in state in which Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 3-to-1 margin, Scott’s victory ranks as one of the greatest upsets in modern political history.
“Tonight, the independent voice of Massachusetts has spoken,” Brown said Tuesday evening.
That “independent voice” sent shockwaves through Washington D.C., as Obama has now officially lost the 60-vote “super-majority” in the U.S. Senate that his administration was counting on to shut down Republican filibusters. When Brown is seated there will be 41 Republicans in the Senate – or enough to procedurally block legislation.
Obviously, we’ll have to wait and see how that impacts Obama’s controversial health care proposal, but on the one year anniversary of his election to the presidency, Obama has been dealt a stunning blow in what everyone assumed was a Democratic stronghold.
Making an awful situation even worse for Obama is the fact that his high-profile, last-minute campaigning on Coakley’s behalf appears to have backfired.
The race was a toss-up when Obama came to Massachusetts last weekend, but Brown opened up a lead after he left.
By Mike January 20, 2010 at 6:30 am
YES WE CAN!!!
If they can do it in MA, we can do it in the 5th Congressional District. Spratt your next! DUMP SPRATT
By countryboy January 20, 2010 at 7:41 am
Dang Mike, you got up before I did. I wanted to be the first to say
DUMP SPRATT this morning :) But I’m with you Bro. Spratt has turned his back on the 5th and it is time for us to turn our backs to him.
By Old Bike Dude January 20, 2010 at 8:03 am
Hey Joe, Joe Wilson, ya hear that? That’s the sound of change coming to South Carolina. That sound you hear is the Rob Miller train. And Joe, you’re sleeping on the tracks.
By sid January 20, 2010 at 10:47 am
“…on the one year anniversary…”
Pet peeve, but it should be “first anniversary,” not “one year anniversary.”
I wonder if Miller will invite Barry to town to help promote this “change”?
By vern January 20, 2010 at 10:54 am
Amen Old Bike Dude! Change works in both ways and Wilson has to go.
By Tin January 20, 2010 at 11:26 am
Spratt is a gonner.
By cerius January 20, 2010 at 12:29 pm
I suspect Joe will win by an avalanche.
Joe was the first to call out our untrustworthy “Liar-in-Chief”…
By Ed January 20, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Gentlemen,
This is not about Demopublicans and Republicrats.
It is time we voted out ALL incumbents in Washington. They are all guilty of bankrupting our country. The one smart thing Scott Brown said was that the seat was not Ted Kennedy’s seat – it was the people’s seat.
Joe Wilson- stop sending me your idiotic mail badmouthing the “other side”. You Washington shysters are all on the same dam side- and it’s time you , Pelosi, Reid, and all the other pond scum are sent packing.
By countryboy January 20, 2010 at 4:43 pm
I am with you Ed. I would like to see Congress totally replaced, Democrats, Republicans and Independants. But it won’t happen. Voters will hate some pond scum from across the country like Pelosi, while voting for a local such as Spratt, who votes almost 100% with Pelosi. I am speaking in general terms, hoping that we will vote Spratt out. It’s like old Byrd up in West Virginia. The old bastard contributes nothing on a national level and is pretty much senile, but he keeps bringing the pork home (or his staff does), so W. Virginians keep re-electing him.
By OhNoNotAgain January 20, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Somewhere on this site I posted that I thought Brown would lose. Can’t find the comment after looking at three other posts, so I’ll take a lump here.
I think the mid-terms will tell us if this was a rejection of Obamacare or something else.
I had compared it to the U.S. House race up in New York that the right got so worked up about. They were so cocky and confident, but in the end, that district that hadn’t had Democrat since, Reconstruction or something, was won by a Democrat.
This might be a “throw the bums out” and start fresh kind of thing.
But the hooting and hollering from the right ought to be restrained. He’s a RINO by all accounts.
The Tea Bag guy was rejected in favor or a moderate Dem in the New York case, and a RINO was supported against a weakly campaigning liberal in Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts?
Is there a moderate party arising? I’d like that.
By No Way! January 20, 2010 at 10:00 pm
You can’t accept the fact that liberal Mass has certainly rejected Obama and his Obamacare with this election? Get for real, this guy is a lot different than Teddy “the Swimmer” Kennedy! I think this is the best thing to happen to that seat in years! This is a signal and message to Democrats far and wide – You had better listen to your voters.
By the way . . . Spratt goes home next! He will be voted out in the next round!
By paycheckeconomics January 20, 2010 at 11:40 pm
“Tonight, the independent voice of Massachusetts has spoken,” Brown said Tuesday evening.
I watched a video of his speech and believe he actually used the phrase “independent majority.” That is a significant recognition of the political landscape that elected him to office.