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I really think the perception on the street is that people are suffering and our government has taken care of Wall Street and the bankers first. So there's a "throw the bums out," anti-incumbent mood that we can count on until the economy improves and jobs are added.

Health care reform could have been approached from the perspective of a means to aid the average American. Instead, it became a tedious, drawn-out, DC game of "how far can we move the bar without pissing off insurers and Big PhRMA?" The calibrations were interesting to political junkies, but to most Americans, health care means something they can't afford or are afraid they'll lose. All they know now is that they must have it.

The Democrats have done a TERRIBLE job of (a) advocating for the people and (b) communicating to people.

East Bridgewater: McCain won by 6; Brown won by 41, a swing of 35.

Here's an interesting one:

Ashland town: Obama won by 63 points (80-17); Brown actually won it by 9 points (54-45), a swing of 72 points

Meanwhile, back at the Palace ...

Pressed repeatedly as to how a Democratic candidate could possibly lose in traditionally liberal Massachusetts, Gibbs pointed to an economic recovery effort that is somewhere between prolonged and stalled.

"I think there is a tremendous amount of upset and anger in this country about where we are economically," he said. "That is not a surprise to us in this administration, because in many ways we are here because of that upset."

There may be the promise of fixing things through reconcialiation in the future, but it ain't happening soon.