An Election That Matters

Why Scott Brown Won... Great piece in the Boston Globe today on why Massachusetts' voters made the decisions they made recently; putting a Republican, Scott Brown, in the Senate for the first time since 1972. The analysis, based on Election Day polling by respected Democratic pollster Peter Hart, is worth reading in the context of the president's State of the Union tonight. That speech, in many ways, will be read as a response to the Senate contest in the Bay State. Here is one telling paragraph: "Still the economy, stupid. The economy, not health care, drove the vote. Among those who felt the economy was doing well, (Who are those people?) [Martha] Coakley won 52-to-43 percent. For those who said the economy was not good or poor, Brown won 56-to-39 percent." Those findings confirm the oldest rule in politics: when the economy is sick, politicians - particularly those seen as most in charge - get the flu. Many Democrats would like to be able to respond to the current political turmoil by saying "we inherited all this," but that referendum was held a year ago November. George W. Bush is a fading memory and voters are telling national Democrats one unmistakable message: "it's the economy stupid and you guys have been in charge." We'll see fairly soon, I suspect, whether anyone is really listening and, if they are, whether they can articulate a program that starts to make more sense to the worried American voter. My sense is there is political danger for anyone right now who comes across as looking less than completely serious about the economic challenge. Links here will take you deeper into some of Hart's polling or an interesting new survey from National Public Radio.