Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Will Obama be able to adjust

When President Obama gave a poor answer during a debate with Hillary Clinton, he continued to cling to his answer. He did not want to be wrong. Will he adjust to not having a filibuster proof senate?

Jumping Ship

Will Joe Lieberman jump ship? He is already in a small boat being towed by the Democratic ship. President Obama would need to be careful how he responds to this election. If his response is aggressive, he may find that he has others willing to jump ship. My question is would Webb or even Bayh jump ship if it appears that President Obama and the other democrats respond aggressively.

Coakley

Martha Coakley became the Sarah Palin of Democrats in Massachusetts. It became difficult to defend someone who did not have a good grasp on the issues.. Had Sarah Palin ran for a Senate seat in Alaska, and made similar mistakes, people would have been ridiculing her. They also does not seem to be any thing to lose in voting for Scott Brown. The desire to see the health care bill pass was not high enough to want to elect Coakley over someone who seemed better aquatinted with the issues.

This should be a good wake-up call for the Democrats and President Obama to make some changes. I would like to see proposing a budget where spending is limited to revenues. And not delaying the balancing of the budget for some time in the future. I would want to see President Obama force congress to work together by vetoing any bill that does not have a reasonable number of Senators and Representatives from both sides of the aisle. Learn some lessons from Bill Clinton. (No No! Not that lesson! I did not mean it that way!) Take polls and use focus groups to determine what the American people want. With today’s technology, one no longer need to hope theirs action will be approved of by their constituents. We the people… can seek out enough information to know what is being purposed. They can have nearly instant feedback on their actions. Learn to listen to the PEOPLE.

Elected office is not a birthright. If the incumbent is not polling well by Feb 1st, you began looking for someone to replace them. With out 60 democratic votes in the Senate, you may see some (Lieberman) who will defect to the Republicans. You will need to negotiate with some Republicans and get them to cross over to the Democratic party. This will be difficult when one looks at how Specter was treated.

When will Scott Smith be sworn into office? Looking through the Wikipedia article about the Late Ted Kennedy, I found something interesting. Ted Kennedy was elected in a special election held on November 6th, 1962. Ted Kennedy was sworn into the Senate on November 7th, 1962. In both cases their was someone who had been appointed to the Senate to replace a Kennedy. So what has changed between 1962 and 2010 to justify any delay in the swearing in of Senate elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts? So with Coakley conceding the election would the Secretary of State of Massachusetts need to certify the election results? Will Paul Kirk be allowed to continue to serve or is he now n