A specter is haunting Washington’s incumbents, not Arlen Specter — the specter of defeat. All the Powers of Old Washington have entered into a holly alliance to exorcise this specter. Beltway and MSM, Harvard and Yale, the New York Times and the network news. Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as NASCAR loving, gun-toting or Bible-clinging by its opponents in power?
- Sen. Arlen Specter’s primary loss continues bad 2010 for President Obama, Democrats “If the election were held today we’d lose both,” a top Democratic strategist acknowledged. “Thank goodness it’s not being held today – but we still might lose the House.”
- Obama endorsements don’t seem to help Democrats “Sen. Arlen Specter became the fourth Democrat in seven months to lose a high-profile race despite the president’s active involvement, raising doubts about Obama’s ability to help fellow Democrats in this November’s elections.”
- Electorate Roars at Washington, Hands Setbacks to Establishment Candidates “One by one, the incumbents or establishment-backed candidates in Tuesday’s slate of high-stake contests fell or fell short.”
- And from the BBC: Is the Tea Party movement the new political force in the United States?: “People in the US have been voting in primary elections, to choose Democrat and Republican candidates to contest the November mid-terms. The results have added weight to the theory that the Tea Party movement is the new political force in the land.”
The most interesting question is how the Powers of Old Washington will react to the primary results. Will they double down? The San Francisco Chronicle says the five important lessons from Tuesday’s elections are: Organized labor is still organized. Pete Sessions is on a serious losing streak at the House GOP’s campaign committee. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is in a heap of trouble — at home and at work. Democrats still can successfully woo working-class whites in the industrial heartland. It just might be a good year to be a geek.
Despite everything, a lot of the powers that be are just going to up the ante. Promise more free stuff. Get on a higher horse. Renew their alliances with SEIU, rename ACORN, buy more ads in the newspapers, and maybe in some concession to modernity, even on the blogs. It just might be a good year to be a geek and an even better one to wear blinkers.
At any rate the oppositionists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can he attained only by letting them work and keep most of their paycheck. Let the ruling classes tremble at the mighty army who want to barbecue burgers on a weekend and play catch around the yard. The oppositionists have nothing to lose except a bunch of politicians who think they can borrow their way out of debt. They have only what they already own to win.
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