Monday, January 18, 2010

Obama Heckled, Brown Surges And Dems Panic

Nancy Morgan

Obama’s stump speech yesterday for embattled Mass. Senate wannabee Martha Coakley was interrupted for a full three minutes by a heckler. Adding insult to injury, the 3,000 seat auditorium wasn’t full. Even with the added attraction of Boy Clinton as a draw. And horror of horrors, Obama’s speech seems to have rallied support for Coakley’s opponent. In a presentation Byron York described as halting, wandering and humorless, Obama tried desperately to rally support for the hapless Coakley to take control of the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat. As the much needed 60th vote, a Coakley win is crucial for Obama’s health care bill. Or maybe not.

Preparing for the worst, this weekend Dems signaled their intent to invoke ‘reconciliation’ should they be unable to win (or manipulate a win) in Massachusetts. Invoking reconciliation means only 51 votes would be needed to pass a health care reform bill in the Senate – a health care bill over 60% of Americans don’t want.

Alas, Obama’s trip to Massachusetts may end up having the opposite effect on the race. After hovering at 50/50 odds all day, the traders at Intrade started betting heavily

on a Scott Brown win just after Obama’s speech. Sigh. Intrade is a website where people vote with their money instead of their good intentions. And this morning, Intrade is showing the odds are heavily in favor of Republican Scott Brown.

Public Policy Polling also reports:

Scott Brown leads Martha Coakley 51-46 in our final Massachusetts Senate poll, an advantage that is within the margin of error for the poll

The special election this Tuesday that will determine the winner of the Massachusetts senate seat is considered a referendum on Obama. And his socialist agenda. For a GOP challenger to win in bright blue Massachusetts, while at the same time taking away a seat the Kennedy’s have long considered their own, has drastic implications for other democrats who hope to keep their seats while still voting in lockstep with Obama.

The Democrats are panicked. Multiple advisers to Obama have privately told party officials that they believe Democrat Coakley is going to lose Tuesday’s special election. So Democrats are starting to lay the foundation for their totally unanticipated loss of what they once considered their safest, most secure Senate seat.
Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), speaking with a gaggle of reporters after the event said,

“If you think there’s magic out there and things can be turned around overnight, then you would vote for someone who could promise you that, like Scott Brown,” Kennedy said. “If you don’t, if you know that it takes eight years for George Bush and his cronies to put our country into this hole … then you know we have a lot of digging to do, but some work needs to be done and this president’s in the process of doing it and we need to get Marcia Coakley to help him to do that.”

That’s right. It’s all Bush’s fault. Obama and crew have managed to redefine yet another verity – under Obama’s leadership, The Buck Stops With Bush. I’m smiling.

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