That is the question of the moment, in the wake of Republican Scott Brown's victory last night over Democrat Martha Coakley in the election to replace Ted Kennedy as U.S. Senator from Massachusetts.
Perhaps because of how quickly the news cycle works, though Brown's victory is considered an upset for the ages, the fact of the matter is if Martha Coakley had won last night, political analysts would be calling that an upset.
As I wrote yesterday, there would be an onslaught of conservative crowing if the Kennedy seat went red, and it started last night with the victor himself, Scott Brown, who said of his win:
"When there's trouble in Massachusetts, rest assured , there's trouble everywhere, and they know it," he said. "One thing is very, very clear as I traveled across this state. People do not want the trillion-dollar health care plan that is being forced on the American people, and this bill is not being debated openly and fairly. It will raise taxes, it will hurt Medicare, it will destroy jobs and run our nation deeper in to debt."
No doubt there are two things that are hurting Democrats big time right now. One is the economy, which is bigger than anybody's control, and the other is health care.
This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2010.
