Obama's Wake-Up Call
First Bob McDonnell won the Virginia Governor’s race, then Chris Christie captured New Jersey’s and now Scott Brown takes the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race. Oh, my! Like McDonnell, Brown trounced his Democrat opponent Martha Coakley with a sizeable lead 52.7% to 46.3%. Three strikes against the Obama agenda is becoming more than a fluke, as Democrats tried mightily to convince themselves last year amidst the losses in Virginia and NJ. The American people are speaking out loudly and clearly against the high-spending, free-wheeling, government overhaul agenda of President Obama and his Democratic cohorts in Congress. Looks like the mighty three Republicans have started a trend.
The president doesn’t believe polls that show support for his health plan dropped to a mere 35% and a Quinnipiac poll shows his approval rating (45%) equals his disapproval rating. But maybe he’ll start waking up as more GOP candidates are elected into office.
People are concerned about jobs, having money to pay bills, feed their families, and the economy. In Obama’s first year of office, the country hasn’t gotten better. The $787 billion stimulus, of which only a third has been spent, was supposed to create jobs and stop unemployment from topping 8%. But it hasn’t created jobs and unemployment has reached 10%. The administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) which was supposed to help 4 million people keep their homes has only resulted in 900,000 borrowers receiving loan modifications and of those only about 80,000 are permanent.
And if you’re one of those borrowers, who has been responsible, paying your mortgage and looking to refinance, there is no solution for you, even though banks received hundreds of billions of dollars in bailout money, much of which is being repaid. Then there’s that whopping deficit which is estimated to grow to $10 trillion by 2019, 6% of the gross domestic product.
No wonder Brown got elected with his anti-tax and spending campaign. Americans want lawmakers to address the country’s real problems and put the brakes on the Obama agenda going nowhere. Like McDonnell, Brown appealed to independents who feel Obama has swung radically to the left and aren’t happy about it. Brown’s win gives the Senate that 41st powerful vote which will enable Republicans to block legislation such as healthcare reform, engineered by the now 59 seat Democrat majority. Democrats now lack the 60 votes to stop a Republican filibuster in the Senate.
The Obama razzle, dazzle magic has lost its luster for many Americans. Even though he came to the rescue like a superhero to do a last minute campaign appearance with Corzine and Coakley, Obama couldn’t help either candidate regain their leads. Over and over again lately, in casual conversations, young and older people who voted for Obama tell me they are “very disappointed” in his performance.
Scott Brown’s election to the Senate is good news for Americans because it will help bring the country’s policies back towards the center where the majority of Americans are politically (37% depending on the poll). Brown is also a breath of fresh air to the GOP. Similar to McDonnell, Brown ran a campaign focused on the bread and butter issues of the day, jobs and the economy and steered clear of divisive social and religious issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. I say hip, hip, hooray for Brown and McDonnell, a new breed of GOP candidates: likeable, practical solutions, politics that can win.