Ann Althouse pretty neatly summed up my macro reaction to the Massachusetts election:
Poor Obama! It's the eve of the anniversary of his inauguration. The State of the Union was supposed to be very grand. And now what? He has been repudiated! He made this election a referendum on the Democrats agenda, and the people of Massachusetts, the most liberal state, gave him a resounding no.I've got to believe that healthcare is headed for the wheels of the bus, because both Obama and the Democratic elites are passionate, primarily, about one thing - being re-elected. And the optics of their taking a stand on top of the monstrous pile of paper that this bill has metastized into in the face of such public opposition...and in the face of the weak coattails that Obama has shown to date...would be devastating both in 2010 and 2012.
Now, I think that could be good for Obama. He's a man of change. Let him change. I hope he becomes the President I thought he could be when I voted for him. With the midterm elections looming in the fall, he can readjust, set himself apart from Congress. Take the people seriously.
I supported Obama for three reasons:
I felt that our conflict with radical Islam needed a reboot, a breather, in the face of the temptation to escalate our way out of things;
I felt that his campaign demonstrated immense competence at the mechanics of politics, and that that competence would neatly transfer to governing;
I felt that he meant it when he said he was about a different kind of politics than we've seen for the last decade or two - a more constructive, more inclusive politics that was about problem-solving and not about rewarding red-meat interest groups.
It's clear that I was massively naive on 3); but he needs to decide - this week, really - whether he wants to keep marching down that path or whether he wants to pivot and try something different. The Blue Dogs and the Netroots are arguing over a two-dimensional map - conservative/moderate Democrats vs. liberal/progressive ones. I'll suggest a third dimension - is he for the current malignant centers of political power (both liberal and conservative) who are sucking the life from the polity in America and killing our politics - or is he for something different?
He's confronted with the horns of a brutal dilemma; and if he chooses one, he'll inevitably be gored by the other. So the answer is to choose neither.
We'll see this week what he does, and where his instincts take him, and we'll know - very soon - if those of use like Ann and myself were mistaken in putting our trust in him. I think not. I hope not.
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