TIME FOR A CHANGE!

When he was running for President, Barack Obama adopted the slogan “CHANGE”; it’s time for a change! Well last night CHANGE came to Massachusetts. Scott Brown was elected to succeed the late Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy, a seat that has been held by a democrat for over 50 years will now be held by a Republican.

The political pundits are talking about the message this election has sent to the established political machines, the public is fed up with this, or they don’t like that, etc. A few have touched on what I believe the real message is; if you don’t know history, if you don’t learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it.

President Obama is an intelligent man; he has been a professor, why has he allowed the Democrats to repeat their mistakes of the past? Will he lead the Democratic Party to recover from this defeat in Mass. and avoid major losses in the midterm elections (repeating the outcome of the 1994 midterm elections)?

Let me address the last two points first. Will he, or maybe more appropriate, can he lead the “Dem’s" to avoid major losses? I’m not sure. When you look at his political history (as short as it is), his campaigns would take steps to disqualify and discredit opponents in order to avoid direct competition in a general election. Until Hillary Clinton, he hadn’t faced a real challenge in his political career.

In the case of Secretary Clinton, President Obama was smart. He got into an election that she (and most “Dem’s”) thought was hers, that it was her time, payback for standing by Bill. The attitude of entitlement caused her to not expect, or prepare for a serious challenge. It also caused her to not use President Clinton sooner; she wanted to show that she was her own person. She should have used Bill from the start, rode those coat tails back to Pennsylvania Avenue and then prove to her detractors that she was her own person and qualified. President Obama was able to capitalize on Secretary Clinton (and her campaign) not preparing for a serious challenge, as well as the fact that he hadn’t been in the Congress long enough to establish a voting record that could hurt him.

President Obama displayed his intellegance again once he was elected when he appointed Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State. That limited her ability to attack him on foreign affairs should she choose to run against him in 2012, she could not attack him without tainting herself. This act also curtailed Bill’s activities and influence on the path the Democratic Party took.

President Obama was also able to limit the influence of some of the traditional leadership of the African-American community. When he first announced there were comments that he wasn’t black enough. Now these people are out there publicly supporting him, no matter what he does, and yet they have less influence.

Once he was elected President he just let Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi run wild with the Stimulus, Cap and Trade, and Health Care packages. President Obama could have given them direction and kept the preverbal reins tight on their activities, guide how these pieces of legislation proceeded through Congress. Instead, he took the criticism of giving them too much freedom in order to let them weaken their own power and influence. Just look at the poll numbers for Harry Reid; he might not even be reelected to the Senate let alone remain as Majority Leader. If he does happen to win he will be weakened enough that President Obama will be able to orchestrate the election of a leader that won’t take away from his coverage, not as strong a personality as his.

If he can overcome the Clinton Machine and the issue of whether he’s a true representative of the African-American community I believe he is smart enough to overcome the Scott Brown election.

First and foremost he has to realize that president’s have personal and political popularity. The two are independent, yet can ruin the other. He and the “Dem’s” have ridden that horse about as far as they can. More importantly, you can only blame your predecessor for so long. They’ve beaten that proverbial horse to death, even trying to attribute the Coakley loss to Brown on the economy that they inherited. Yes, Coakley is a Democrat, but she was thrown under the bus. It just shows a part of the problem, rather than take responsibility we have to attach blame elsewhere regardless of the facts. And while I’m on the subject, if George W. Bush was that bad why would you call upon him to help with the Haiti Relief efforts. I guess they want to be able to lay that on G.W. if the efforts don’t go well or are criticized.

When I began this writing I mentioned history repeating itself. With the vast majority of Americans believing that reforms are needed to our health care system, just as in 1993, how can anger about this have helped Scott Brown win election to the Senate seat held by Ted Kennedy over a popular Democrat that just a month ago was 30 points ahead?

Just as in the early 90’s most people believe that the Health Care in this country is the best in the world. They also believe that there are problems that need to be corrected to improve it, and that it has to be affordable to those that have it as well as available to anyone that wants it. This can be done without scrapping the entire system and not by punishing those that currently have it. You also can’t accomplish it by making it more of a disincentive for a corporation to provide healthcare then not providing such care.

History has shown that Congress needs to truly and sincerely listen to the American people, all people, and then craft a plan that will truly provide for all. And could we quit changing the number of Americans that don’t have coverage because it will help the argument for the proposal.

A final thought about history is that all history is not negative, but it can have negative consequences on the future if it is forgotten. Eighteen (18) months ago the American public that had never voted, that had become disillusioned by politics became excited and eager to vote! Why? They saw a young man named Barack Obama that was positive and upbeat, he wasn’t ridiculing others, and he wasn’t putting people done! He also expressed the belief that the people needed to be listened to and shown that their opinion and beliefs mattered.

What happened to that man? That man would never have tolerated members of Congress demeaning a citizen, a voter, for asking questions, for wanting to share their thoughts and fears with their elected representatives. Instead of standing up for the citizen just trying to be a part of the process President Obama joined in the demeaning of people, these “Tea baggers”. Had he remembered his history, and listened to what was being said, he would have seen the analogy to the Tea Tax revolts of the 1770’s and the Boston Tea Party. He would have embraced the symbolism and exploited it, not reticule and demean it. President Obama went to Mass. this past weekend to campaign on behalf of Attorney General Coakley.

During that time he ridiculed Scott Brown because he was driving the state in his pickup truck that had 200,000 plus miles. There were a number of undecided voters, and Coakley supporters that decided to vote for Scott Brown after President Obama’s comments about Brown’s driving around in his truck. Worse than helping Brown win, the President gave his critics another sound bite to use as proof that he is an elitist and that he doesn’t care about (and looks down upon) the “common” citizen, the average American.

Fortunately the Massachusetts election occurred at the end of the first year of Barack Obama’s Presidency. Now he has time to remember history and give the voters what they elected and hoped for. A president that cares about them, about their opinion, and doesn’t think he is better than them. If he does that he can save the Democratic Party from a repeat of the 1994 midterm elections when they lost a forty four year majority in Congress, and practically guarantee his reelection in 2012. If he can give the voters the man that cared, instead of the President that looks down upon hard working voters, he can be remembered in history for a landslide reelection instead of just a footnote because of his ethnicity.

That’s My Opinion, What’s Your’s