Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Gasing up The Truck to Washington - Scott Brown Wins MA Senate seat



(Newsmax).In one of the most shocking turnabouts in modern political history, GOP underdog Scott Brown has single-handedly captured the so-called "Kennedy seat" in Massachusetts, wiped out the Democratic supermajority in Congress, and pushed the president's Obamacare agenda to the very brink of a stunning defeat.

Just before 9:30 p.m., The Associated Press declared Brown the winner, and Democrat Martha Coakley called him to concede. At the time Brown was declared the winner, returns showed him comfortably ahead by a margin of 52 percent to 47 percent.

Given Obama's personal investment in the race, the results represented a sharp rebuke of the president's healthcare reforms and big-government agenda.

Even before the polls closed, bitter accusations were hurled between defeated Democrat Martha Coakley and state Democratic officials over who was to blame for the debacle.

In an exclusive Newsmax interview, Fox News commentator and best-selling author Dick Morris discussed the astounding result: "It certainly is the revisiting of the shot heard 'round the world, which was originally made in Lexington and Concorde, Mass. … that absolutely was what happened tonight.

"A shot was fired that will be heard around the world. The most liberal seat in the most liberal state went Republican. And it didn't go for a squishy Olympia Snowe Republican. It went for a real Republican."

Morris added: "It marks the last bill Obama is ever going to pass of any consequence, except for bipartisan stuff. This is the end of the Obama ascendancy, because he has so systematically alienated the 40 Republicans, that now that there are 41, none of them is going to give him the right time of day.

And this really marks the end of Obama's attempts to reshape the United States," Morris said. "He'll try, but he won't succeed.

Despite polls showing Brown surging powerfully in the campaign's waning days, the Democratic machine's ability to turn out the vote and bad weather in Republican-leaning precincts left the election in doubt.

Throughout the day, reports of heavy turnout left observers perplexed over whether this favored Coakley given Democrats three-to-one registration advantage, or Brown due to a strong protest vote marching to the polls.

As the early returns began to pour in, Brown quickly jumped out to a comfortable lead, an advantage he held consistently as the night progressed.

Speaking before the outcome was announced, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said a Brown win would be "the biggest upset I've ever seen in my lifetime."

As the outcome became apparent, analysts expressed shock. After all, Obama carried the state with 62 percent of the vote in November 2008. The stunning Democratic setback came hard on the heels of embarrassing defeats in the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey.

Longtime GOP political strategist Roger Stone called the outcome "A victory beyond conventional wisdom or belief." In an exclusive Newsmax interview, he compared the result's impact to the post-Watergate shift to the Democrats in 1974, and the shift to the Republican sea change in 1994.

"Obama's victory in 2008 was clearly not a repudiation of conservatism or an endorsement of big government," Stone declared. Rather it was a referendum of George W. Bush. Sadly, Obama misread this.

"To elect a Republican to Ted Kennedy's seat, in the bluest of blues states, shows us how disgusted swing voters are with the administration. Obama pull his full prestige on the line by visiting Sunday, and now he tells us if Brown gets less than 60 percent it's a loss. Does the president really think Americans are that stupid?"

Yet Stone predicts that Tuesday's shocking result is just a harbinger of worse news to come for the administration.

"This is just the beginning of the tsunamis that will sweep 2010," Stone tells Newsmax. "But they will not reach full strength until 2012".

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"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" (Churchill)