Congratulations to Scott Brown...

...for a great campaign and a solid win that won't be challenged in court (by about 100,000 votes). Also, want to congratulate Legal Insurrection had a great Live Blogging application going that kept me up to date. I also indulged a little schadenfreude and watched Olbermann, Maddow and Matthews on MSNBC for a while. Olbie and Maddow maintained straight faces but Tingles and some of the reporters looked like they were about to cry. Matthews did say something that I think was correct. He said that people support big government when it works, when it builds highways that work and universities that are good. He implied but did not state that people would support big government run health care if it worked. But we know that will never happen. Further, the things he discusses happened in an era of much smaller government. Today, government is so large, it can't even do it's traditional job well, which seems to be lost on Matthews as he pines for the glory days of the Tipster.

Yesterday, was it that long ago?, Dean pointed out that Brown campaigned against Obamacare, Cap and Trade and for fiscal responsibility and that should cover any minor sins of lack of enthusiasm for a social agenda he might have. I think we can all get behind that agenda, right now, most other issues are secondary.

Mrs. Daddy, like a lot of ordinary people, has been very discouraged about politics for the last year. I had been saying that eventually the people would awaken to the crap that the Democrats have been peddling. Thank you Massachusetts voters for giving me a little vindication.

The Dailykossacks are in disbelief. I found it telling that multiple times they commented that they couldn't believe that a "teabagger" could be elected in Massachusetts, no matter how bad the Democrat candidate. This shows a little bit of the bubble world they are living in, because the tea party types are really their every day neighbors that are fed up with big government.

Also, I would like to point out something little noted or commented upon. In the pre-election polling showed Brown winning over 22% of Democrats and holding on to 90%+ Republicans and winning over "undeclareds" at 60%+. This shows the importance of always trying to frame your issues in terms that will appeal to the other side as well as your own, even if you don't think they are listening, because you never know. Even though I am not even the best blogger in the family, I try to keep my tone and language under control so that I am always trying to persuade the other side. If you find me doing otherwise, please call me on it.

Oh well, I guess the Harvard Profs didn't have enough clout to carry Coakley over the top. Wonder what lessons Professor Obama will draw from his failure to help his candidate? Probably double down on his current stupidity if he stays true to his Chicago form.

UPDATE

Maybe this is another reason why Brown won. I liberated this video from the comments on BwD. This Obama's impassioned plea to help Martha Coakley.



Is he the most underwhelming, uninspiring partisan ever?

Obama Locks up the Vote

of Harvard professors that is, by dissing a pickup truck. In a campaign in which the Democrat has run as the pseudo-incumbent, has had a series of gaffes that have shown her to be out of touch with the electorate, and in which Obamacare is polling below 50%, you would think the President could do better than this.



He reportedly obsesses over the GMC pickup truck all over the place in this speech. It just gave Scott Brown an opening that even LT could have run through (sorry, I'm still upset about the Chargers):

Brown took that opportunity to slam the president on government spending..

“Mr. President, unfortunately in this economy, not everybody can buy a truck,” Brown said in a statement. “My goal is to change that by cutting spending, lowering taxes and letting people keep more of their own money.”

H/T BigGovernment, The Corner

Scott Brown Surges in Massachusetts - UPDATED

More interesting tidbits in a race that has become more interesting than last November's trifecta of NJ, VA governor and NY 23rd congressional. Scott Brown is now ahead of Martha, "I was bequeathed this seat by the Kennedy dynasty" Coakley. First, the last three polls at RealClearPolitics show Brown ahead. As important as the raw numbers is the clear trend line. And speaking of trend lines, look at the InTrade odds for this seat and the rapid movement over the last couple days, where Brown is, as of 2:18 a.m. GMT, Jan 19, a $60 favorite. That means, to win $100 on a Brown victory you have to plunk down $60.

DailyKos ridicules the Brown campaign for countering Obama's appearance with "the triumvirate of Curt Schilling, Doug Flutie, and John Ratzenberger (of cheers fame)." Given Obama's sinking popularity and the popularity of Flutie and Schilling as sports figures, I think Brown got the better deal.

And Obama's take on all this:

"Believe me, I know how big a lift this has been," Obama said. "I see the polls. . . . I catch the occasional blog poster, cable clip that breathlessly declares what something means for a political party, without really talking about what it means for a country.

"But I also know what happens once we get this done, once we sign this . . . bill into law: The American people will suddenly learn that this bill does things they like and doesn't do things people have been trying to say it does. The worst fears will prove groundless."

That from an appropriately titled WSJ column
"Pyrrhus, Call Your Office." Obama could turn into a bigger gift to conservatism than Clinton as his last remark reminds me that in Massachusetts, Romneycare was initially supported by 70% of the people, but now only polls at 32%, with a full 36% calling it a failure.



UPDATE

Can't believe I'm scooping the famous sports/politics blog BeersWithDemo with this little gem from Martha Coakley:

Weekend Round Up

I feel a little more vindicated about my theory of 2007/2008 that Bill would sabotage Hillary's chances of becoming President. Ron Rosenbaum puts a spin on Bill's comments about Obama from the "Game Change" book by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin that finally gives me a smoking gun. While purportedly trying to get Ted Kennedy's endorsement for Hillary or at least prevent said endorsement from going to Obama, Clinton is quoted as saying "A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee." From the Pajamas Media article:

What more could he have done than to alienate the ailing senator whose family identification with the civil rights cause was one of the chief glories of its decidedly mixed record. You know what: I have a heretical theory about this remark. It’s just too obvious to be a “slip.” Wouldn’t the whole episode make more sense if Bill was deliberately out to sabotage his wife’s run in ways she’d never know? And maybe for reasons he doesn’t really know.

That the Massachusetts Senate race is even close is already damaging the Democrat party. The unions and special interests are pouring in cash and help, but a wide variety of anecdotal evidence puts the momentum on Scott Brown's side. I was a little reluctant to get on this bandwagon because Brown had voted for Romneycare in Mass. But he has pledged to block Obamacare at the national level, so what's not to like. A few fun facts from the race:
1. Coakley has run one of the most abysmal campaigns, even appearing to insult Fenway Park.
2. Coakley was involved in one of the most infamous unjust and unfair prosecutions of the 20th century, that of the Amirault family, falsely convicted of child molestation.
3. Look at the trend in the polls, and compare the time line to the revelations of backroom deals on Obamacare.
4. Coakley managed to spell Massachussetes in an attack ad on Brown.


Oregon is going to the polls to tax the rich while their unemployment rate stands at 11.1%. Apparently liberals think with all this suffering will get voters motivated to support new taxes on the wealthy. This tax is being pushed by the public employees unions in another example of their attempt to become our masters rather than our servants. (If the linked Reason article doesn't make your blood boil, you are can't call yourself conservative or libertarian.) But I think the public is smart enough to know what a job killer the new taxes are; raising the top rates from 9% to 11% and business income tax from 6.6% to 7.9%.