Watching the returns the other night from Massachusetts reminded The Hound of the famous Adlai Stevenson quote after the 1952 election: "A funny thing happened to me on the way to the White House..." A funny thing happened on the way to health-care reform: Massachusetts voters.
Surprisingly, Democrats aren't in shock after what happened in the Bay State with Republican Scott Brown now a senator-elect for a seat held by the Kennedy clan for decades. In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 3-1 margin, couldn't the party have scrapped up some voters for Democrat Martha Coakley? This wasn't just a defeat of a Democrat, this was a humiliation for the president. Heck, Coakley didn't even carry the Kennedy stomping grounds of Hyannisport. It was a Mass-acre.
While national Democrats paint the election as lost by Coakley's poor campaign style, exit polls tell the true tale of the tape: Fifty-two percent of Massachusetts voters surveyed as polls closed told pollsters they opposed health-care reform. This in a state that was the lone bastion of support for George McGovern during the Nixon landslide of 1972.
Despite this defeat, or because of it, congressional Democrats appear to be full-speed ahead to pass health-care reform with or without Sen.-elect Brown's 41st filabuster-making vote. If The Hound were a Democratic strategist, that's the worse thing they could do, putting entire states in jeopardy come November.
That includes Illinois. So get ready Land of Lincoln for the Beantown bounce in the second-bluest state in the nation. It's coming.
Let's keep in mind 2 things:
Ms. Coakley took a vacation and stopped campaigning after the primary. I'm not sure I'd vote for a candidate like that, either.
Americans are not against healthcare reform; most of us, regardless of political affiliation, NEED it. Americans of all stripes were not pleased with some of the components of the current legislation. Of course, this means Americans were AWARE of the components of the legislation, unlike some past legislation under Congress with different leadership.
Further, if not for the Democratic leadership - as inconsistent as they may be - if it were left to Republicans, no part of healthcare reform would get a moment's notice. The costly, ineffective status quo would be allowed to continue.
Thankfully, this time around, Illinois has high quality candidates running for Senate and Congress.
THE HOUND SEZ: If you believe Martha Coakley lost because she ran a poor campaign, check your pulse. Democrats outnumber Republicans in Massachusetts by a 3-1 margin. Of course people need health insurance. It's just that if they have it, they don't want to pay for everybody else's.
What the voters in Massachusetts (or Massachusettes, if you are Martha Coakley) didn't want is more Dem party arrogance. The party leaders expected to be able to nominate even a ham sandwich and get it elected. Remember that this was 'Ted Kennedy's seat', where Brown reminded everyone that it didn't belong to anyone except the people. This was a place which the Republican party had no significant impact and was virtually a one-party state. But something funny happened to Martha on the way to her coronation (or rather, her temporary seat until another Kennedy could be scraped up to take over). Voters didn't care for being taken advantage of, and they hated the policies and taxes that the politicians had imposed on them year after year. They hated the corruption and incompetence and knew that Coakley was just another arrogant candidate. She didn't want to shake hands with voters outside Fenway Park, but thought nothing about going to Washington for a fundraiser filled with the very 'fat cats' her party claimed to be fighting.
Obama's cluelessness about Brown gave the voters another look at Dem party arrogance and they decided that Coakley was NOT going to represent them and their interests. To the voters, she was just another party hack who was going to vote for what ever Obama and Reid told her to vote on, and she would ignore the very people she claimed to represent.
This is the same thing in Illinois, where the dominant Dem party (and their RINO allies) has been arrogant as well as corrupt and incompetent. This year is the chance to 'throw the bums out'. But don't buy slick campaign ads that these candidates profess to be 'reformers' and 'outsiders'. Look at their histories, and seee just what they have done and what their connections are; and don't depend on the MSM to solely provide you with information. They didn't with Obama and we are now stuck with him for three more years.
If things aren't changed this year, there is very little hope for Illinois.
THE HOUND SAYS: As for hope for Illinois, we will see come November.
Come November I for one will not be voting for the re-election of Melisa Bean in the 8th congressional district. As far as I am concerned she like many of the other arrogant incumbents are tone deaf and are not listening to the wishes of her constituents. Instead she is following the radical socialist policies of obama.
THE HOUND SEZ: Well, Rick, hate to break this to you, but Congresswoman Bean isn't really known as one of the socialist lemmings following the president. She, after all, is considered a "blue dog Democrat", one of the fiscally conservative Dems, which leans toward business interests of the 8th Congressional District. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has lauded Bean in the past, doesn't give kudos to radical socialists.
I will not be voting for Melissa Bean and will work for whoever is running against her. She IS part of the radical socialists in power now. She claimss to be a moderate but her voting record is over 90% with the democratic party, how is that moderate. I don't care who endorsed her or how much she claims to be "for" the business interests of the 8th district, she votes with the radicals and has got to go.