US President Barack Obama suffered a painful defeat in Massachusetts on Tuesday. With mid-term elections looming, it means that Obama will have to fundamentally re-think his political course. German commentators say it is the end of hope.

 

US President Barack Obama has had a number of difficult weeks during his first year in the White House. Right after he took office, he had to wade through a week full of partisan bickering over his economic stimulus package combined with a tax scandal surrounding Tom Daschle, the man Obama had hoped would lead his health care reform team.

 

Then there was the last week of 2009, when a failed terror attack on a flight inbound for Detroit exposed major flaws in US efforts to identify and stop potential terrorists.

 

This week, though -- a week when Obama should have been celebrating the first anniversary of his inauguration -- may have been the president's worst yet. Scott Brown, an almost unknown Republican member of the Massachusetts Senate, defeated the Democratic candidate Martha Coakley for the US Senate seat vacated by the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. The defeat in a heavily Democratic state not only highlights Obama's massive loss of popular support during his first year in office, but it also could spell doom for his signature effort to reform the US health care system.

 

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,673192,00.html

hopefully this will be a wakeup call for obama to be more of a moderate instead of sticking to the left. why can't we have bill back in office again?

Bill is definitely better than Bush and Bush 2.0(Obama) but he still allowed a massive bubble to occur and the fundamentals of the economy to deteriorate. A rich nation can afford to be foolish longer than a poor nation. And under Clinton the fundamentals weren't as deteriorated as they are now so he got away with more. We still had inflation, weakening currency, and real wages declining under Clinton, the general economy was better thus it didn't look as bad nor his presidency.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Initial-jobless-claims-apf-3027105474.html?x=0&.v=5

 

This is pretty funny, too.

 

At what point are we allowed to stop calling this a "recovery"? Does unemployment have to hit 35%?

 

And I'm saddened Obama won't get the healthcare bill he wanted. I was hoping we could just get this thing over with (like ripping a band-aid off quickly) but instead it's going to be a slow, painful slog toward a command economy.

 

hopefully this will be a wakeup call for obama to be more of a moderate instead of sticking to the left. why can't we have bill back in office again?

 

Bill's too busy dispensing his invaluable advice for Haiti right now.

 

If anything, this should be a wakeup call for all the dolts who honestly expected Obama to be anything other than the status quo.

 

This is Bush's 9th year in office.

Oh this is morbidly funny:

 

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31724.html

 

“If Ted Kennedy had decided to resign, or retire, when he found out just how bad his health was, instead of wanting to be a martyr for the cause, the Democrats wouldn’t be in this position,” Erickson said.

 

I'm not sure if that's necessarily true or not, because Coakley ran a crappy campaign and she was running against Cosmo's "Sexiest Man Alive 1982" or whatever. But it's still sort of fun to think about.

Double post.

why can't we have bill back in office again?

 

I know you were being facetious but i'm going to be pedantic. Bill can't run again, two-term maximum. :smug: Would be great to see him in again. Actually it'd be hilarious :D

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygy0HbbKVM8]YouTube- Scott Brown- Health Care for All[/ame]

 

So I guess this whole "OMG REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION" thing isn't so different after all.