Martha Coakley was not a great candidate, and Scott Brown ran a great campaign. But this was above all a referendum on the Obama Administration - and also the Patrick Administration. And on the health care bill - that miserable giveaway to the insurance companies being foisted on us as a reform.
In a normal country, what would happen next is that Obama would accept blame for what happened. Then he would either resign or fire his cabinet, starting with Rahm Emanuel, who has been his point person on the Health Care bill, and then Geithner and Summers who have managed the disgraceful bank bailouts, and Gates who has engineered our escalation of an un-winable and unnecessary war in Afghanistan.
That isn't going to happen. Electing a right-wing Republican is not going to make anything better, because they aren't going to get the right message. The Democratic politicians in the main are not going to get the message that they need to be more democratic, and need to deliver on the change they promised.
One pol who gets it is our new Mayor Joe O'Brien. His answer: Organize, Organize, Organize! Organize a real grass roots democratic Democratic Party, from the base up, one where the members really get the final say on what it stands for, what it does, who it runs and what is expected of them after they win.
Another person who was working hard for Coakley and who gets it is Grace Ross. But does she get it enough to join the Democratic Party?
The bright spot for me is that Coakley carried Worcester - and carried my own good blue-collar precinct by 3 to 1. The activist base overcame our disappointment at the outcome of the primaries, and despite Coakley snubbing us, turned out in the last weeks to work hard for her. And the good people of Worcester turned out to vote for her in spite of her.
Thank you Worcester, birthplace of the American Revolution. In the midst of my disappointment you give me a lump of pride in my throat.
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