Anyone who takes this as an endorsement of the Bush/Cheney brand of politics is making a serious error.
This is much less about political sectarianism than about the peoples' discontent with government that doesn't listen,and like Farragut at Mobile Bay says"damn the torpedoes,full speed ahead"on such complex issues as the stgimulus,health care,submission to international treaties,and cap and trade.When Congress tries to,or actually does pass thousand plus page bills without knowing exactly what they will result in,because no one has read them,it puts ordinary people ill at ease-they feel that a group of radical intellectuals around the President and rapacious maniacs like Nancy Pelosi are trying to shine them on.
It didn't hurt that Coakley was a miserable candidate-arrogant and full of "entitlement".
Watch out Patches,your dynasty is winding down!!

This result is a pushback from the citizens against the unbridled arrogance of Obama, Pelosi and Reid and their healthcare scam.
Sorry Joe but Massachusetts elects miserable, arrogant, full of entitlement candidates all the time. All the time!!
This wasn't about Coakley, a popular sitting AG, although that will be the whiney excuse Dems will use to make themselves feel better.
This shocking result, who would finish TED KENNEDY'S term, is about Scott Brown tapping into citizen rage against Washington. Everyone knew what was on the line. Obama came to campaign, the party machine (is there a state with a better party machine??) was out in full force and yet it didn't matter. The beauty of this win by Brown is the sleepless nights many Washington Dems are having because they've supported the Obama scam yet live in states that don't have great party machines like Massachusetts.
This is so so sweet!!

Tim-I can't say we're far apart in what we see here.Jim Webb,a halfway decent Democrat,has already said no vote should be taken on health care until Brown is seated.I see Reid,Dorgan,and possibly Dodd replaced by Republicans,although if Blumenthal runs in CT,I don't think he'll lose.
Boxer is up for re-election-getting rid of that cretinous little monster would be a huge victory.
November 2010 may well be the last hurrah for the radical agenda that was thrown in our faces a year ago.
The RIFbots will be spinning this,but they can't really put a good face on it.
Imagine-the "Kennedy seat" gone!!A fitting tribute to the late senator.I have never liked any of the Kennedys,including Jack.Same for the Bushes.And the Clintons.
Dynasties belong to the degenerates in the European royal families.

Joe a caller on Matt Allen's show last night played an interview done with Jimmy Carter. Carter was recalling how when he was President they had a plan for healthcare reform and they had every important player in Congress on board EXCEPT Ted Kennedy who killed the healthcare reform deal because he was going to run for President and wanted to hurt Carter. Imagine that!! TED KENNEDY killed healthcare reform to suit his own personal agenda. This same the same Ted Kennedy who killed chart school options for the largely African-Amercian Washington DC public school system a couple of years back at the request of the teachers unions. These libs then have the balls to sit there with a straight face and tell you how they are champions for the poor, the minority, the common man. There is a level of evil in the hypocrisy that Ted Kennedy represented and that continues to this very day among his liberal ilk. Ask Gerald Amirault and his family about Martha Coakley and her evil ways. Thankfully with the new media we now have that hypocrisy getting exposure on a daily basis.

Except, Joe, that there's no way to spin this away. Ted Kennedy's seat, in the only state that voted for George McGovern, has gone to a Republican. It's simply stunning.

Further to that point, while the polls were all showing this outcome for the last week, unlike other elections, no one who supported the upcoming winner could really relax and enjoy what was about to happen: it was a special election, about which polls are notoriously inaccurate. More importantly, this is MASSACHUSETTS, a notably liberal state. Who knew what voters were going to do once they got into the polling booth??

Amazingly, the polls were right!

While RIF has taken a more sophisticated route since Brian took over, their consensus is that the "center-right" Obama administration and Congress has not been liberal enough to satisfy it's supporters. What a remarkable misread of Brown's election!

Likewise, the right would be wise to not interpret this as an embrace of the GOP. Coakley came off as entitled and elitist - from her unwillingness to do retail politics outside of Fenway ("in the cold, shaking hands") to her operative pushing a reporter - in contrast to Brown who successsfully branded himself as an independent taking on the political machine. Appearences by Clinton, Obama, and Parrick Kennedy only reinforced Marcia's branding as "incumbent."

Brown simply harnessed voter discontent with feeling disenfranchised.

Here is a little anecdote from Massachusetts which may help explain the public's reaction. About 10 years ago there was an attempt to open a Charter School for Black kids, just west of Harvard Square. That would be the Mt. Auburn neighborhood.

In a neighborhood largely populated by the "liberal elite" a petition against the school was rapidly brought up. When the signatories to the petition were made public, there was an abundance of embarrassment. Of course the "Libs" did not oppose it for any reason connected with racism, they were merely concerned about the increased traffic in their neighborhood which would make passage of "emergency vehicles" difficult.

When the citizens of a democracy become aware of "do as I say, not as I do", there arises a reasonable repugnance.

The liberal elite are the biggest bunch of racist motherf**kers on Earth.They are right down there with the KKK,but at least those scumbags are honest about their feelings.
The liberal elite are patronizing and manipulative,but they really don't want "people of color"using their toilet.They look down their ample noses at everyone who isn't in their little circle.They have destroyed our universities and are doing a good job on destroying the justice system.They hate our military and never realize the very people they claim to care about would rip them off for the fools they are in a NY minute.And they'd deserve it.

Well, another moderate statement from Joe Bernstein.

Just finished reading a biography that points out that in the 1880's both Harvard and Yale obtained their natural history museums by way of endowments. The endowments were made in exchange for giving a professorship to nephews of the very wealthy. So, what's new?

I haven't noticed any moderation in statements from liberal elitist phonies.Why should I sound wishy-washy?
Sheldon makes some very immoderate statements,and he's a US Senator with the ability to change peoples' lives.
I'm a nobody who can't affect anyone's life.The least I can do is call it the way I see it.

Proud of you Joe, Keep it up.