Curmudgeon's Corner

Post-Election Take-Aways...

Posted by Al Campbell on Jan. 20, 2010

Economy, Healthcare, Political, Quality of Life, Taxes, U.S.

Post-election take-aways; there are many but I’ll focus on the basics for today.

This election, in the very heart of liberal America, was, in hindsight, a huge referendum on Obama’s first year and on the Democrats’ handling of their new-found power.  Both the President and the Democrat-controlled House and Senate were severely upbraided by the people of Massachusetts.

Think about the implications of that event.  Massachusetts is, arguably, the most liberal state in our union, and yet the people demonstrated that they were center-right in their position.  They were very uncomfortable with what they had seen in the first year of the Obama Administration.  There is no realistic way in which these results can be otherwise colored no matter your political persuasion.  This Senate seat, “owned” by the Kennedy family for decades, was summarily given to an “Independent Republican” as he calls himself.

Senator-elect Scott Brown made it very clear that he was making this a referendum on health care reform.  That referendum was openly engaged by President Obama and Obama lost the vote.  The vote was sufficiently lopsided that the Democrats didn’t even think of trying to take the victory away with recounts and found ballots as they did in our neighboring state of Minnesota.

So, where does this leave health care reform?  I’ll join with Bob Laszewski’s take on his blog this morning: “stick a fork in it”.  In its present form, health care reform is on a dead-end street, and it will take an even greater toll on Democrats in the fall elections if they even try to push it through knowing they probably could.

The leaders will try to whip their obedient followers into a sufficient frenzy so as to get this moving toward completion.  The moderates of that party, especially those who are standing for re-election this year, saw the same thing we saw last night.  They knew this was a referendum on health care reform in its present iteration.  They thought they had the political kick remaining to get Coakley elected in spite of the “referendum” that had been laid out.  They were decidedly wrong.

If you are a moderate Democrat this morning, reflecting on the results from Massachusetts, you know full well that health care reform, done on a purely partisan basis, is the kiss of death since your home state is nowhere near as liberal in make-up as was Massachusetts.

Pelosi and Reid will continue to try, but they make themselves look more and more partisan to their own detriment.  Reid knows he is likely to lose his race so this would simply be his martyring himself.  Obama, I believe, is smart enough to have seen the writings on this wall, but he will have to overcome those confidantes, such as Rahm Emanuel, whose thoughts probably center on ramming it through with a “Damn the torpedoes” philosophy.  This is the rough equivalent for Obama that was faced by then-President Clinton when his party lost its shirt in the ’94 elections.  He now has the choice of re-making himself and his legislative agenda to be more centrist or of finishing out this term.

As I’ve stated any number of times, there are very solid changes that can be made in health care systems very quickly and at much lower costs, both financial and psychic, than would’ve otherwise been required.  And, those changes can be made in Wisconsin if they are stymied nationally.  The events of yesterday are there to be taken to heart.

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The Curmudgeon Blog today is titled "Did They Hear?  Do They Care?".