No need to wonder: The Dems will not right the ship. Congress is gridlocked. Obama is at the mercy of the economy which will probably not improve sufficiently before the next election. (CBO projects 9.5% unemployment through 2011). Dems have to defend 24 Senate seats in 2012 versus 9 for Republicans, or which maybe 3 are decent opportunities for Dem pickup:

John Barasso (WY) – Dem can’t win
*Scott Brown (MA)
Bob Corker (TN) – R since 1994
*John Ensign (NV)
Orrin Hatch (UT) – Dem can’t win
Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) – R since 1994
Jon Kyl (AZ) – R since 1994
Richard Lugar (IN) – unbeatable IF he runs again, R leaning state
*Olympia Snowe (ME)
Roger Wicker (MS) – R+2 state, turnout pattern heavily favors R

Oops it’s 23 D and 10 R since Scott Brown.

Brown is almost certain to lose to a strong challenger so I would expect him to resign and run for President.

Even with that much lead time, they were unable to right the ship. One has to wonder if they’ll be capable of doing so now.

no

I read today that obama is signaling he’s going to keep giving middle class assets to the wealthy in the form of bush’s tax program

they have learned nothing, they found out we were right and their answer is to do more of the same, more right wing crap

they have learned nothing

With respect, I disagree. Dems learned long ago to obey their corporate overlords who are their *real* constituents. There was nothing else for Dems to learn, having learned that lesson really well.

There is no downside for Dems with the so-called “epic loss.” Blanche Lincoln already has her drapes measured & picked out for her nice cushy, highly paid corporate job once she trots her sorry behind out of the Senate office. And don’t forget that YOU & I will be paying for Lincoln’s lucrative pension & the best health care benefits in the world.

What *lesson* does Blanche *need* to learn? I think Blanche figured out a loooong time ago the prime directive: I got MINE, eff you!!

Short Ride’s term expires in 2012 as well.

Thanks, Jon. I was wondering what happened to the candidates from those 4 polls. In a similar vein, I saw a post at Salon.com showing that most of the so-called New Dems who voted against extending unemployment benefits went down to defeat. Voters have been pretty up-front about what they want and what they think, so, yes, it was all predictable.

Instead, the DCCC launched a coordinated effort to discredit and ignore the polling.

This is mind boggling.
2012 is going much, much worse.
Same economy and 2 more years for voter anger to build.

What a crew. Deserve everything they got.

I scolded Hinchey in person about HCR at a small meeting of Ds in Gardiner, NY a month or two ago. He not only didn’t agreed, argued with me, but insulted me by telling me I didn’t know what I was talking about. Not a good idea to insult a constituent imo, but maybe that’s just me. If it had been me, I’d have asked me to explain in detail what my problem with the legislation was. He was also defensive about the Afghan surge. Claimed it was all the Rs fault for not having trained the Afghan army.

In any event, he’s a member of the “Progressive” Caucus, and he clearly didn’t understand what the problem was. He’s been in the veal pen since O was elected.

He won reelection in a district that may now be slightly bluer than purple. He is also important for a local environmental issue, fracking, or a way of cracking rocks to get at the natural gas. I read on a local website today that Hinchey’s legislation on that in now DOA, owing to other R wins in the area.

What assholes.

He’s in the Dem caucus, so that’s not a potential D pickup. Still it will be great to be rid of him.

He’ll be a R by then.

They had almost a year to prepare after the warning. Even with that much lead time, they were unable to right the ship. One has to wonder if they’ll be capable of doing so now.

Judging from the presser today, they are leaderless.

Congress is gridlocked

I disagree. I think we’ll see a much higher volume of legislation now than in the previous 20 months. Obama is going to herald everything as bipartisan compromise. These folks have the best spin doctors and street hustlers in the world. “Don’t look at that individual mandate and lack of public option, over here the kiddies get healthcare on their parents’ plan until they’re 26! And if you have a preexisting condition, there are high-risk pools for you now!”.

I assure you we’ll see a ton of shit in this same vein over the next 2 years. Conservative, wingnut legislation hiding behind progressive doormats.

every elected official first priority is to get re-elected

the only politicians this logic does not apply to is corporate politicians

Obama did nothing to help dems win in 2010

Obama intentionally wipe out a lot of dems, this is what trojan horses do

But you simply WOULD NOT hear that from Daily Kos, known polling frauds, or Chris Bowers, etc.

We need new leaders of the left blogosphere, people that actually get it, people like Hamsher etc.

Forget winning until you get the blogospehre in order.

Well,ok, if you’re into self flagellation ( Oh sorry we are not democrats here, we are progressives.), but what now? Do progressives get behind anything now or just stand back and toss turds? Do we have anyone we want to replace Obama? There’s even a chance he will drop out. Do we want health care repealed and, if not, what do we do? Do we want taxes raised on everyone? Are there any compromises we would tolerate in any of this? The republicans began planning their way back right after the election and they are doing the same now.

I think they call what you’re doing “preaching to the choir”. Go tell the people that aren’t on Jane’s blog all day that they should be on Jane’s blog.

Are there any compromises we would tolerate in any of this?

Fuck no.

And that’s the message that should be sending: NO COMPROMISES.

OK then. What is it you want?

I wouldn’t mind paying higher taxes.

I’ve also thought about health care being repealed. I think I’m for it, simply to see the end of the individual mandate. I’d be interested to see what conservative alternative is being offered, though, before making a decision on that.

As for replacing Obama, I’m all for Grayson. Or Dean. I think we need to actually organize an effort to stir up those folks’ camps and see how they feel about primarying Obummer.

“…they were unable to right the ship. One has to wonder if they’ll be capable of doing so now.”

I have yet to see even a hint of any evidence that they even want to.

Even with that much lead time, they were unable to right the ship. One has to wonder if they’ll be capable of doing so now.

Great leaders can admit their mistakes and change direction. Bad Leaders Bush, Kim Jong il never admit making a mistake.

Dems retaining the Senate sort of muddies the water. It might have been better for their near-term future to lose both chambers so the public could pin more of their dissatisfaction on Republicans.

The anti-incumbent sentiment will continue to grow and with Dems (however feckless) controlling the Executive branch and having a majority in the Senate, the average uninformed voter will continue to blame them most for their problems. That being the case, it is unlikely that Dems will fare much better in 2012 than they did yesterday.

Come on MAN?

Let not act like the republicans are great at planning

Dylan Ratigan showed a poll that stated 47% of DEMOCRATS want Obama primaried.

Smart republicans hate the idea of winning the house, NO MORE SAYING NO, now they have to share with the world their foolish ideas and OBAMA the trojan horse has to eat them.

The Democratic Party rudder must be defective, their ship only turns to the right.

Let me respond. I agree on the taxes thing. Let the damn cuts expire and make the repugs come to the dems for some relief on say capital gains taxes, and offset that with the middle class cuts.

On health care, the mandate can go, at a minimum the penalty to buy insurance. I think this one is easy to fix. I would push for larger cost relief to low income wage earners with a cap on their out of pocket. I think there is a little of this in there but not enough. Repeal, not so much, but I will listen to the repugs, although I don’t expect much.

I won’t go for either of those guys but I do think we need to start talking it up. I really do think O may choose not to run. If we stir up those camps others may jump in though.

Are there any compromises we would tolerate in any of this?

I would trade the individual mandate for a phased Medicare buy in.

Not to mention the fact that even if Ds are not to blame, they manage to figure out a way of painting themselves as guilty.

I agree. For it to do much good, it should have been a clean sweep. Sorry about that but it’s true.

The agenda the dems had is still there – jobs, improved health care, ending DADT. The question is how do we advance it. You surely can’t by being mum about it.

I tend to agree with you. Everybody expects gridlock, but I expect that we’re going to see the New Deal undone in the next two years.

I’m really interested in peoples’ opinions on a viable primary challenger. Do you have anyone in particular in mind?

You’re right, although for whatever it is worth they usually ARE guilty. None of the Bush policies passed through Congress without a heapin’ helpin’ of Dem votes.

Exactly. All under the guise of bipartisany circle jerking. Problem is, we’re all in the middle of the circle.

Dems retaining the Senate sort of muddies the water. It might have been better for their near-term future to lose both chambers so the public could pin more of their dissatisfaction on Republicans.

I’m not so sure. I see wisdom here in that most law originates in the house. From there it will move to the still dem-controlled senate, where our worthless Senators will flim-flam around for a few months before passing the HRs with excuses like “we had to get something done, we can’t just do NOTHING.”

We’ll continue to be fed the same shit they’ve been feeding us. The Republicans will continue to write the bills. They’ll just have an easier time getting them through the house.

That is a tempting prediction, but I just don’t view the Rs as being competent enough to accomplish that.

But then, I vastly underestimated W’s ability to ram through his programs, so my opinion is not that reliable.

There is a big diff, however, at having to do it via executive branch vs. legislative. I’m thinking back on the animal house the Rs were during the Gingrich years. And there isn’t a single R today who has Gingrich’s grip of the issues.

Whatever.

I leaning towards agreeing with Rat, eCAHN and Twain. Let them take the full heat. The full blame.
And, also it’s interesting to see people here kind of arguing with each other. Maybe I’m just being a girl and others see it as invigorated discourse.

Frustrated voters will eventually decide to give the Dem side of the coin another try. Unfortunately for us the coin is counterfeit.

No, I don’t. I wish I did. That is something that depresses me, since I don’t know how O can rehabilitate his Presidency after such a crushing defeat and in the face of the worst party of no ever and a constituency that almost relishes his defeat.

Rat, eCAHN and Twain are all making great points. I’m still interested in nailing down whether or not we’re going to primary this asshole, and who we’re going to attempt to primary him with. I think if we’re going to get behind a challenger, we need to do it early. Fundraising is going to be a BIG deal here in the new age of Citizens United.

Ah, so that’s what they mean by “trickle-down.” Better keep a good grip on our snorkels. :)

Also, I want to say that I watched Way Too Much tv yesterday. Mostly MSNBC. You know that new slogan they have, Lean Forward? Isn’t that what we do right before we bend all the way over, grab our ankles and….?

Unfortunately for us the coin is counterfeit.

I like it!

There aren’t any political leaders of any parties in the U.S.

I’ve got ponchos for everyone!

Stop, you’re turning Tweety on.

” The agenda the dems had is still there – jobs, improved health care, ending DADT. The question is how do we advance it. You surely can’t by being mum about it.”

the only issue in the USA has been jobs! not health care

ask Obama why he and the corporate dems ignored the economy

obama could end DADT tommorrow, he chooses not too

you may need to ask the people in the white house are they playing to win

Well, a couple of good things have happened. The Blue Dogs got smacked hard. Progressives are a larger power block in the Dems.

I would strongly suggest all the progressives consider going hard Dem populist. There’s nothing to lose at this point – Obama is a spent political force and the DNC, DLC, etc are shown up as the toothless corporatist.

The problem will be (as always) money. One way to attack that is to turn the public against big money in politics (easy way is to point out this money is better spent helping people.) Best to look at other countries solutions to this problem and turn it into an issue so that ANYBODY taking big bucks in 2012 is a villain.

See my 44. And there’s NO way any progressive coalition can raise enough funds to run against the Rs, or even the corp Ds. Just. Cannot. Be. Done.

In a winner-take-all political system, what you suggest is almost impossible. In Europe, multiple parties arise from proportional representation systems, as near as I can tell.

There will be plenty of Dems to help it along. Plus Obama is all set to go with the Catfood Commission. Best to have the progressives form a block to fight all of it. Winning or losing in stopping it will not be important, just showing over and over how the people are getting screwed.

Yay! :)

Frankly, I’m feeling too disappointed and old for the Tingle. I’m actually considering to trade interests. Following politics just kind of upsets me because of all the humanity. It was kind of fun watching some of those baseball games. I’m thinking, maybe, bowling? Maybe I should go get one of those great jobs at WalMart.

Every lost fight where the people get screwed is a win if you’re a populist and just gets people more angry.

Progressive either hang together on this to become a force or will get compromised and nailed when whole Dem party goes down.

I understand the Ds will go along with it, but they are even less competent than the Rs.

There were some names being discussed last evening. IIRC, Grayson, Feingold, and…I forget. Anyone remember?

Yep, all the games are fixed, the establishment candidates stack every deck and only roll loaded dice.

Meandering off for awhile. Splendid evening to all.

You may not consider Jerry Brown a progressive, but he did beat that corporate R [creepy lady].

I hate to agree with Dick Armey but Obama may well already be unelectable. He tried to triangulate his own party. He never pleased the left and he didn’t even please the Blue Dogs. If he doesn’t face a challenge from the left watch for one from the right. The Republicans have him right where they want him — compromising and looking weak. I mean how much weaker could the guy have looked today? They’re not even going to have to let their lunatics off the leash. They can obstruct — just enough. Americans will blame Obama if the economy isn’t cooking by 2012 and with no stimulus what’s the chance of that?

Sheldon Whitehouse should get himself known around the country so that he can run for President. I believe that he is a good man and he seems to hold our values.

Feingold & Grayson are both nonstarters, for oh so many reasons. The simplist ad that I’d run if I were their opponent, is to pick a real hangdog, or other unflattering photo, put a big “LOSER” across the face, and just let it run silently for 15 sec.

Wow, something about the phrase “invigorated discourse” gave me a tingle. S’pose I need to get a life.. :)

Never did figure out if Brown was really running for office, or just waiting in the wings for her to defeat herself. But I wasn’t there, so I didn’t see any efforts he might have made.

There was a time in this country when you could say you were a liberal democrat. There was even a time when politicians said it. There were even politicians who got up and roared it…in front of God and everybody else…. and weren’t struck down. There was a time when republicans were ridiculed and shamed for their mean-spirited feckless ways. Liberals stood tall, head up, shoulders back. And here we are trying to think of one name, just one, who might possibly pass muster.

LOL. I think it was some of each. Brown’s was the most casual campaign ever until the last month.

I could criticize some aspects of his campaign, but there’s no need to. It should be enough for you to realize that he won against Big Corporate Money, when a whole lot of the rest of the country didn’t. So, yes, he made affective efforts.
Have a relaxed and enjoyable evening.

You got that right. I merember it well.

I like him too. But, he’s needed where he is. Maybe Harrison Ford could run. He kind of looks like Sheldon, don’t you think? Maybe we should think about other Actors. Brad Pitt anyone?
I gotcher tingle.

I think he spent his limited money well. He did win, right?

I’d never heard of him. I just read his entire wiki page. I like.

He ran a couple of mild attack ads. Only in the last couple weeks. Nothing major. Kicked her ass solidly, though.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/11/03/notes110310.DTL

Ouch. This has a lot of comments for that site. The top 3 are telling.

Sorry Kris, gotta disagree. That next to the last ad, the one where he split screened Whitman and Schwartznegger were saying the exact same thing, word for f’ing word and then the zinger was We tried that before and it didn’t work, was brilliant. Even all the Bakersfield, Fresno and SD people understood that.

But his children weren’t born in the US!

I liked that ad :) still mild compared to some of the shit she was slinging. “Jerry Brown; job killer”. That was intense.

Look, the Rs will not give Barry anything WE WANT. Certainly nothing that will help the economy. We’ve seen two years of that. It’s depressing but gridlock may be our default position.

Yep, he did.

He writes at Huff Post from time to time and makes great speeches.

So, you wanna give a call to Brad and ask, or shall I? *g*
And, those who are won over by Brad might be won over by his lady.

Different eyes, I guess. She just lied. He was affective.

You call Brad -I’ll call Harrison ’cause he closer to my age.

When you talk to Brad, tell him I saw his wife naked in bed with Antonio Banderas!

I understand that she lied. I just think it was a much more intense attack ad. His stuff seemed pretty tame. Which I like. I wish everyone campaigned like he did. It was calm, it was pretty well mannered, it was truthful. I think the entire nation needs to get back to that.

It was calm, it was pretty well mannered, it was truthful. I think the entire nation needs to get back to that.

With all due respect, it wasn’t like that in the 18th century :-)

How refreshing that would be. The R ads this time not only were attacks but were outright lies. The truth doesn’t seem to matter any more.

You saw or read his acceptance speech? A man with a mission. You know he went to Jesuit School. But, he smoked pot and dated Linda. My kinda guy. Not the dating Linda for me part. :)

But, he smoked pot and dated Linda.

This Linda.

I haven’t seen his acceptance speech, and I didn’t know he dated her! That’s freaking awesome. I’m so young. I missed the cool part of his life.

Yes. Gosh, I saw a picture of her recently, now. Not so good.
But, I also loved the video she did with Aaron Neville – Don’t Know Much. Makes me tear up, everytime.

Not worried about it.

There’s just a few more completely uninformed bigots who didn’t notice the President-elect was Black until he was already elected than I had guessed.

I knew the bigots were out there. I knew they were out there in numbers. I knew the bigots would detonate when they processed that a Black guy was in charge. I’d been through it before when Doug Wilder was elected Governor in Virginia and sworn in the former Capital of the Confederacy.

The bigots lost their freakin’ minds. Before it was done, there sheets and hoods in Richmond protesting a statue for Richmond native Tennis great Arthur Ashe.

The bigots bellow for a while, then in one in twos eventually crawl back into whatever holler they crawled outta.

I’m a big fan of hers. I had no clue she dated Brown. I’m going to google pictures of him in his younger years to try to figure out what the fuck she was thinking.

Brown had a great young life. He and Linda traveled together. No one was shocked.

Joan Walsh actually had a good column at Salon [a rarity] saying that Obama & Friends should take the lesson that they should have been stronger about HCR/public option, regulation of banks — y’know, the usual subjects.

I note that the King Idiot got up & applauded the defeat of Prop 19 last night. Way to rally those already-disaffected young voters, Einstein.

Even Howard Fineman [Howard Fineman!!!!] said on Tweety [forgive me, I was channel surfing] that Obama looked distracted and lost. Boy, if that’s gonna become the meme of the usual gang of MSM cheerleaders, Obama really IS toast!!

I think this is one of the key issues for Obama and Friends: they don’t appear to want to do any of the “good stuff.” [Don't hit me with brickbats; I know they're corporate stooges. I'm just taking about the image they project in their attempts to garner voter support].

I guess Obama thought no one would notice that he never proposed ANYTHING. He even turned the HCR over to “Congress” [read Baucus and Friends].

He never articulated a “this is what we’ve got to do” list, sent legislation to the Hill, fought for it, and even if it lost, put on a good fight.

Nope, he + Rahm preferred the “let’s burnish our list of ‘achievements’” strategy, figuring no one would notice that each of those “achievements” was a hollow fraud.

Well, this tactic continues to work @ the Great Orange Satan and HuffPost, so I guess they’re not too far off.

yeah, can you imagine a gov ‘travelling’ with a rock star now? They used to call him Gov Moonbeam…. can’t remember who the ‘they’ are, but they did nevertheless.

I like Joan Walsh.

I would strongly suggest all the progressives consider going hard Dem populist. There’s nothing to lose at this point – Obama is a spent political force and the DNC, DLC, etc are shown up as the toothless corporatist.

I would really, REALLY like this debacle to be the beginning of Dems starting to peel away from Obama, recognizing that he and his “policies” are a huge anchor around each of their necks, and they’re swimming in shark-infested waters.

I wonder to what extent “behind-the-scenes” talks went on as Congressional Dems approached what they had to know would be a horrible day, and watched Obama, “leader of the party,” do nothing to minimize the onslaught.

He had a big … stash.

She’s too weak for me, except occasionally.

Point for her: she loves the Giants.

Oh, you big, tough Mauimom. :) Even progressives can be a little bit different, can’t they?

Even Howard Fineman [Howard Fineman!!!!] said on Tweety [forgive me, I was channel surfing] that Obama looked distracted and lost.

Out of bullets. No lead in the pencil. His next position is the fetal one.

He’s a pretty good guy and his dad was the best. So was his mother.

turn it into an issue so that ANYBODY taking big bucks in 2012 is a villain.

.]

Here in backward, none-too-bright Hawaii, they have actually managed to turn their rampant racism towards anything “Mainland” into good. The accusation that a candidate “took Mainland money” was thrown about the great effect [mostly against Republicans, who did; but it was leveled against Dems, who didn't -- at least not as much].

Finally, health “Care” DEFORM acknowledged as the cause of the DEMise!

I sent a message to our leadership a year ago last July pleading with them to do something and their response was they didn’t see anything to rally for. The Teaparty was having rallies and news events and we were making fun of them. In Kentucky those people are now laughing at us.

And his sister. I went to college with her.

Don’t forget, Gov. Moonbeam had Linda Ronstadt as a girlfriend for quite some time.

Um, yeah. What we said. A teensy bit ago.

I caight something Obama said in his presser today about our huge gas resources and expanding the ways of getting at it.
Surprise! It seems Obama’s for frakking just like every good Republican should be.
Goodbye NYC drinking water. Goodbye beautiful Catskill Region.

Check it out.

She called him moonbeam. It was her pet name for him. The media found out, repeated it, and the Republicans used it to hammer him with when he tried to run for President.

He’d have been a damned good President.

OT, but it sure would be nice if “edit” worked again.

420 and Linda in the WH? What could go wrong?

Yuppers. See most any of my posts above for evidence in support of your request.

Yes, Kathleen. Very nice person.

The mandate is the part of HCR Republicans will want to keep.
No way will they deprive the insurance companies profits.
Everything else will get flushed down the toilet.

All they need is to get ONE Dem supporting cutting SS or cutting Medicare/Medicad, etc and they will pin it all on the Dems. And they will get more than one Dem.

I agree. If he signs it, he’s history.

That “shoot the messenger” strategy worked terrifically for the Democratic Party yesterday. Well, didn’t it? Didn’t it?…

That’s the problem – he’s already history.

… they were unable to right the ship

Picture of it going down

I assure you we’ll see a ton of shit in this same vein over the next 2 years. Conservative, wingnut legislation hiding behind progressive doormats.

The wrinkle in this is that Obama’s game plan is to compromise and strike a deal with the Republicans (he’s tried it with every bill from from stimulus on). The Republicans’s game plan is refusing to compromise and run from any deal. Every time Obama negotiated against himself, the GOP
moved right, and then Obama compromised again, the GOP moved further right.

The result invariably is the dog food Obama has signed into law. So the only possible compromise the GOP can justify to their base involve an utter and complete capitulation by the President. They’ll get what they want, energize the GOP base and demoralize the Democratic base all at the same time. Otherwise, they’d be just as happy letting Rome burn.

While I agree that the outcome has been expected for atleast a year, I don’t think that it is HealthCare’s fault. It really lies with the jobs situation.

As Paul Krugman has pointed out the Recession ended in Summer 2009 with an unemployment rate of 9.5%. Over 15 months later (with coorporate profits), Unemployment stands at 9.6% with the economy growing less than neccessary to keep up with population growth. Unfortunately Obama has thought that he and his administration has done a great job on the economy – ‘Larry Summers has done a Heckuva job’ He just doesn’t get it.

I hope Krugman is wrong and the Economy picks up, but I really do expect that Obama will go down badly in 2012 because Unemployment will not significantly improve. People who don’t have jobs will blame the President in power.

The Ironic thing is that John McCain would have probably have been stuck with the same economy or worse if he had one election. He was supposed to be the Bush fall guy for their House of Cards, but things collapsed a little early letting Obama get in.

With this economy, there is little the Democrats could do, to stop A wave, but the size of the wave was by no means predetermined. For more news and commentary, check out http://thebondproject.blogspot.com/

Yes you did it!!! You were totally right to do the GOP’s dirty work. I hope they paid you well.