For me, the really bad news about yesterday’s loss, is that the Democratic Party, and especially the President still don’t get it. He and they have turned off their base, and pushed away throngs of supporters by failing to lead and turn the country around after 8 years of a deteriorating democracy. And they haven’t done any of that. They have shown no real leadership at all.
I don’t personally blame it all on the president, as if it is all his fault. It is far bigger than him. He is one person who functions using much guidance and input from advisors and others. But he isn’t a dumb puppet either. He has not only surrounded himself with the wrong people, but he has not led and used the office of the President to create real change. If you stripped names, and just looked at accomplishments, his presidency doesn’t “look” that much different from Bush’s presidency. A much more intelligent man doing the same dumb things, and still failing to lead.
Even where his actions were required, such as bailing out Wall Street, he failed to frame that message and educate people why it was the right thing to do, so while it may have saved the World’s economy from total disaster, we don’t understand  that. Nor, were those initial and mandatory moves followed by demanded changes that would help the average person on Main Street. Instead we have a politician flapping his lips calling the guys he bailed out “Fat Cats” and wanting to tax them, when the time for real change to the system has passsed.
The wars in Afganistan and Iraq are other examples, of a President who is out of touch with the American people, and can not frame and communicate what is needed and why.Truly, we can not just pull out of Afganistan. The failure of the Bush administration to really commit to that war 8 years ago, has led to the mess it currently is. But no where does he lay the blame where it belongs. Instead we are fighting in Pakistan, which is not our war; we are fighting in Afganistan, where, like the Russians, we can not win; and we are still in Iraq.
Where we have failed most with Iraq, has been in a failing to really bring Truth to the situation. Atrocities and war crimes were committed. And yet, this President doesn’t want to look back and hold those who are responsible for those issues. Obama has done little except give good speeches when it comes to restoring the reputation of the American people.
He promised us, a change in transparency and an end to politics as usual in Washington, yet nothing has really changed. He promised us changes to social policies and civil rights, and nothing has changed. He promised to get our economy back on track and all he did was keep too-big-to-fail companies from imploding, but has done nothing to fix the broken system which supports and encourages them to act as they do.
And the Congress hasn’t been any better. The inability for Congress to get meaningful financial regulation passed, the inability to get real health care reform passed, and the inability to get the American people working again demonstrates that it isn’t just the Republicans which is the party of “No.” Special interests and lobbyist rule Washington, no matter who is in the White House. And the American people want that to change.
On paper this loss is significant because now the Democrats have lost their 60 vote majority. But that is a fallacious issue. The Democrats didn’t know what to do with the majority when they had it, and they couldn’t legislate with it, let alone without it. And until the Democratic Party gets honest about that, and figures out how to really act as one party, it doesn’t matter if there are 51 or 71 Democrats in the Senate.
Coakley didn’t have a chance of winning as soon as a good liberal bill Health Care reform bill was killed off because the President didn’t fight for what he claimed to say was mandatory- a public option which had some meat to it. Coakley didn’t have a chance after Lieberman was allowed to gut it to the point that it isn’t really worth much, with no repercussions at all. Reid and Obama opened the door for Coakley’s defeat, and until they are both gone, and replaced by real leaders, it is going to be all down hill from here.
A top adviser to President Obama rejected assertions that Tuesday’s vote was a referendum on the president or Democratic policies and instead took a shot at Coakley: “Campaigns and candidates matter.”