Scott Brown Wins Ted Kennedy's Old Seat

[blakstang98]

So for all of you that watch the news or are well informed may have seen that Scott Brown won the special election for Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat, beating out the heavy favorite, Martha Coakley.

The major significance of this is that Brown, a Republican is taking the seat once occupied by a Democrat. This means that if party's stick with their political belief, then the Democrats will not have enough votes to pass new bills. This is a huge blow to the upcoming National Healthcare vote and for future bills.

I would share my thoughts on the matter, but I'm sure enough of you have pieced together my views from the other political threads moving around here. Also being in this area of the United States, it has been a big deal around here, especially since this is a very Democratic area of the country, so I've been hearing a lot about it on TV and the radio.

What are your thoughts on Brown winning Kennedy's seat and how it will affect the future bills?

 

[Shu]

Hmm, I don't want the health care reform because of (rumored) how much I've heard it will punish my friends without health care at all. Apparently if they do not get any form of health care by the end of the year (2010) and the bill is official there will be a $700.00 fine.

But since this isn't about the health care bill, all I gotta say is.. good for him =). I don't care much about either party anymore.. but it's cool to see a former seat being taken up by an opposing seat.

 

[Noblesse Oblige]

As far as I'm conerned, I don't care bout health care anymore. Because Health Care just tears apart bipartisanship within the respective parties. (Not without, since there never has been bipartisanship at all and it will never happen)

 

[Darth Ultor]

I am personally very happy that Obama lost his filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. If there was one thing that pissed me off about the 2008 elections, it's that the same party ended up controlling the Executive and Legislative Branches. I don't think Obama, or an President for that matter, should have a rubber stamp in the Legislative Branch. When you have diversity, it give more room for argument and debate.

 

[GBJoker]

"It's not Ted's seat... It's the people's seat."

Secondly, if you thought Cokely was even remotely close to being a favourite to win the race, that's just plain ignorance.

 

[lreal]

Sigh...she ran a pretty shitty campaign imo. Plus health care was a pretty big focus and most of MA is against a national plan due to the enmity towards their already existing state plan. National health care is a bust for now...only if Ted never got cancer.

 

[blakstang98]

"It's not Ted's seat... It's the people's seat."

Secondly, if you thought Cokely was even remotely close to being a favourite to win the race, that's just plain ignorance.

Well, considering Ted occupied the seat for 47 years, it was basically his seat. As the people of Mass would say, there was ever only a 1 Senator race in that time period. People seem to highly regard the Kennedy family and will vote them in, no matter how bad they may be. So yes, the people vote him in, but really the Mass people are blinded by the name and voted him in blindly, so it ended up becoming his seat.

Mass is one of the more liberal states in the country, and they hadn't had a Republican Senator since the early 70's. So its natural to think that there was no way Brown could win. She also had a lot more financial backing to run the campaign than Brown. If our country wasn't in such a bad state and wasn't in need of major changes, then Brown wouldn't stand a chance. But because of the volatile situation involving Health Care, the people wanted to make a stand, even if that meant putting in a conservative.

Am I the only one who sees the irony of Democratic states? They vote in liberals only, so they're being conservative for liberals.

 

[lreal]

Mass is one of the more liberal states in the country, and they hadn't had a Republican Senator since the early 70's. So its natural to think that there was no way Brown could win. She also had a lot more financial backing to run the campaign than Brown. If our country wasn't in such a bad state and wasn't in need of major changes, then Brown wouldn't stand a chance. But because of the volatile situation involving Health Care, the people wanted to make a stand, even if that meant putting in a conservative.

That's not necessarily true. The majority of MA residents are actually Independents rather than Democrats or Republicans. When it comes voting time, these Independents simply tend to lean toward Democratic values. So it would probably be more accurate to state MA as more of a non-conservative state than a liberal one. The state isn't as liberal as it appears.

 

[blakstang98]

That's not necessarily true. The majority of MA residents are actually Independents rather than Democrats or Republicans. When it comes voting time, these Independents simply tend to lean toward Democratic values. So it would probably be more accurate to state MA as more of a non-conservative state than a liberal one. The state isn't as liberal as it appears.

Well, I've lived in New England my whole life (RI and CT) and I know for a fact that MA is no different from RI and CT as far as political views go. There have been little to no Republican politicians in any of those 3 states. Being non-conservative is a nice thought, but with that many liberal politicians shows that MA is a liberal state. If it was mostly independent, there would have been more conservatives.

 

[GBJoker]

Mass is one of the more liberal states in the country, and they hadn't had a Republican Senator since the early 70's. So its natural to think that there was no way Brown could win. She also had a lot more financial backing to run the campaign than Brown. If our country wasn't in such a bad state and wasn't in need of major changes, then Brown wouldn't stand a chance. But because of the volatile situation involving Health Care, the people wanted to make a stand, even if that meant putting in a conservative.

She might have won by a long shot if she didn't make comments about having to shake hands outside of Boston or in the cold. I think it was Boston... Whatever city she was in. You know what I'm talking about. In other words, if she actually campaigned like Brown did, she most likely would have beat him.

 

[blakstang98]

She might have won by a long shot if she didn't make comments about having to shake hands outside of Boston or in the cold. I think it was Boston... Whatever city she was in. You know what I'm talking about. In other words, if she actually campaigned like Brown did, she most likely would have beat him.

I totally agree with that. I don't know the exact details of how the campaign was run on either side, but it's true that Coakley would have won if it was "typical". I do know that Brown was a vast underdog in December, so either she did something wrong when campaigning or he did something very right in his campaign. It's possible that the uproar of Health Care had a major bearing on people wanting to put a stop to it (or the residents of MA anyways). Maybe it was a combination of all those factors. But if this was an election done when the country is more "stable", then Coakley would have won by double digits, almost guaranteed.

 

[Talbain]

Don't care about this election's result, it really doesn't matter in the long run. It is NOT Obama's fault regardless of what these idiots on CNN opinion pages are reporting. I've pretty much given up hope on the health care bill, but with any luck they'll manage to scrap a few pieces of legislation through before Brown is actually seated.