WE ARE A CENTRE-RIGHT NATION.

LISTEN TO BAYH, & MY STATE'S "MR PROGRESSIVE" RUSS 'SHORT-STACK' FEINGOLD -- SCUTTLE HEALTH-CARE.

ANYWAY, OL' RUSS HAS TO GO SLOB WALNUTS!'S FLACCID KNOB AGAIN. (& THAT'S VERY GOOD NEWS... FOR JOHN MC CAIN!) HE DOESN'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS SHIT. & HE'S GOT HIS "GUVMINT SOC'LIST HEALTH-CARE".

Tom Arico!!!!

All I have to say is: L----O----L

independents turning against the party in power during 10% unemployment is biggest non-surprise ever, right?

viva la pre-existing condition. fucktards.

hoo boy the office talk today...

This thread.

When I launched my company with the tag line "Money, Message, Media" a friend suggested the real story is "Money, Message, Candidate" - in all three of the fails you posted, one or two of those elements was missing -- mostly message and candidate.

Any Dem not named Jon Corzine is Governor of New Jersey right now.

Coakley got the nomination and took her foot off the pedal.

So, there are some massive fails for sure, but look a little deeper.

That said, the President is going to change his message pretty quick.

i'd like to thank coakley for reinforcing the detached democrat stereotype amongst the common folk

Yeah, he'll forever have the stink of failure on him for not succeeding in getting the sort of health care reform he envisioned and the Dems will probably take a thorough beating in the mid-term election, but there's nothing stopping the man from righting the ship and having a Clintonesque 8yr run.

I'm beyond disgusted.

She explicitly agreed to no hate ads, then broke that promise when she realized he was stealing it from her. She fucking handed him the high road and said "here you go mkay, I'ma be down here in the mud," and sure as shit he's in 14 ads the next week wearing sweatervests and shaking hands with John Q Steakum in working class shitburgs like Worcester and Southie, pointing out that they agreed no attack ads. Meanwhile she's got nothing but slo-mo black and white footage of him getting into a pickup truck with the "evil/creepy" music in the background. AHHH THE TERROR! That campaign was so incredibly badly run. And now we don't get healthcare.

The mansion was all ours, we left the back door unlocked and threw a party on the front lawn.

healthcare bill was completely neutered anyway

It was something. It wasn't anywhere near perfect but it was a healthcare bill. It drew some sort of line in the sand with insurance companies, it gave dems some kind of claim to competence, and it could've been a platform for future refinements and improvements.

Contrast that to what it will be now, assuming nothing gets passed. Tangible proof of dem failure, Obama in particular. A rallying point for every well-meaning ignorant poor sonofabitch who desperately NEEDS healthcare reform, but who fell for the 'ol SOCIALISM! dodge, as a means for them to say "Now washington will have to listen to us!!!" even though... that's what "washington" was doing... listening to the people, when they demanded healthcare reform.

Get off the ledge, Cap. You're like the FT of politics.

I'm sorry I won't ramble - shorter answer is "I'll take an imperfect bill over this amazing failure."

I so desperately hope you're right.

I don't know that your assumption on the "demanding healthcare reform" is correct. Most people who have insurance are quite happy with the insurance they have. The uninsured, while a national and fiscal problem, probably don't vote - and the failure to do anything on, you know, JOBS AND THE ECONOMY, or to link the economic situation to Healthcare is why the bill, and candidates are losing.

I think the the most fundamental flaw is that Dems assume that people want America remade in a certain new image - where education and healthcare and banking look more like Europe - when what they really want, is a return to the go-go 90s and the boom times of 05-07.

Could well be. Seems like a year ago, though, HC reform was pretty high up there in polls. And then Sarah said they were coming for Gramma, and somebody drew Hitler mustahces on Oabama posters, and support waned.

Also, I'll hang it on the dems for not driving home the point that those happy people who are currently insured are seeing rising premiums now, and there's every evidence that it's unsustainable. Ie, you may be happy now, but do some basic math and you're going to pay triple or more in not too many years' time for the same levels of coverage.

Dems are no good at scaring people.

From my vantage point, this is a Republican misread/oversimplification of the situation. Seems more that your average voter is willing to vote for anything that represents change of the government status quo - and that's the same status quo that was around in the go-go 90s and the alleged boom times of 05-07. People would vote for a goat in a muumuu if they thought the goat was serious about 86'ing the lobbyists and career politicians. And that seems to be the biggest failure so far of the Obama admin: he promised change, he delivered the same ol' same ol'. For now. Seems that he's smart enough to recognize the problem. Not sure about the rest of the Dems - although they may now have the Coakley fear in 'em to help prod this into a better direction.

also, dems havent made the connection between rising health care costs for their employer and how that impacts their salary. people always complain about how their annual wage increases hardly keep up with inflation but somehow don't consider the big picture.