Don’t blame me, I’m from Massachusetts, was the bumper sticker in 1972 in the one state that voted for George McGovern in the Nixon sweep of that year. And so it will be again after Scott Brown’s victory in Tuesday’s special Senate election.
Already, Virginia Senator Jim Webb, one of George W. Bush’s most effective critics, is calling on President Obama not to rush through health care reform before Mr. Brown is sworn in. Which means that the President and Congressional Democratic leaders will now be negotiating with Republicans – if they still wish to enact the reform, that is. Because now all eyes will turn to the mid-term elections of 2010. Facing the possibility of huge losses, the Democrats will now be acutely sensitive to the anti-incumbent mood sweeping the nation.
Mr. Obama got caught up in favourable press reviews and the adulation of the crowds – abroad, though increasingly less noticeable at home – and he badly misinterpreted the mandate he secured a year ago. Americans have not changed ideologically, and, while most still like Barack Obama personally, they do not approve of most of his signature policies (with the noticeable exception of the surge in Afghanistan). Though it’s difficult for most Canadians to understand, that includes health care. And if the Senate takes up the issue of climate change – also an open question – any legislation that even has a chance of getting through that Chamber will look very different from what international leaders and activists in Copenhagen had in mind when they put their faith in Barack Obama.
