The Massachusetts Special Election

Well, it appears that Milquetoast Martha, who apparently went on vacation to the Caribbean during a six-week special election campaign, has conceded the race for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat. The polls closed about an hour and a half ago, with all indications that what happened was, in fact, going to happen, and now it has.

It's hard to understate just what a stupendously poor campaign Coakley ran, what with the aforementioned poorly-scheduled vacation, along with her apparently referring to Kurt Schilling as a Yankees fan as well as just generally not getting out there and shaking hands and kissing babies. And it can't be denied that the trends in the national scene didn't do her any favors. People are, rightfully, unhappy about the direction the country is headed in, and I think anti-incumbent sentiment worked against the Democrats, even though Coakley was not, in fact, an incumbent. After all, when you're not happy, you want to throw the bums out, whoever the bums happen to be, and the Democrats (not that they act like it) are at least theoretically in charge, and are thus the bums to be throwing.

But Kennedy's seat should have been a shoo-in, and it's a testament to how far out of control the National Dialogue has gotten that the Democrats could lose it, and in doing so, probably lose Health Care Reform, which was his signature issue.

I don't know what the solution is, how we're going to get Health Care Reform now. All we needed was to get the basic bill on the books, and fix it later.

Well, maybe now there might be some momentum for discontinuing the filibuster. Luckily the Republicans mapped out the way to make it happen a few years ago. Wonder if the Democrats will have the stones to go there?

Yeah, I'm not holding my breath, either.