Going forward, Obama is going to have to make Washington work without letting the way Washington works drag down his presidency. And that means he'll have to begin speaking to the country more clearly, rather than hoping his accomplishments will speak for themselves. These criticisms are always easy to levy, and communicating to a country of 300 million people that doesn't want to watch long policy speeches is easier said than done. But Obama will have to try, because soon, he will have no other choice.

To which I say - NO F***ING SH*T!!!!

Link

It was to be the culmination of Ruy Teixeira and John Judis' 2002 book "Emerging Democratic Majority." Judis wrote an essay following Obama's victory headlined, "The Democratic majority: It emerged!" By March 2009, Teixeira authored a 47-page report titled, "New Progressive America."

But polling painted an American political landscape that had not changed as quickly as its president. Rather, in those months of great hype, it was clear that the "Public Stands Between Reagan and Obama." The enduring American tension with activist government went largely ignored. Obama pressed forward to reverse the Reagan era without the humility of a president who knew that it was not yet his era either.

Unlike FDR, the first year big government measures were not focused on the economy. The stimulus measure was primarily a big social services bill. The health care bill became the boondoggle of Obama's political capital. The big jobs bill did not come, even as Americans experienced the worst unemployment rate in more than a quarter century.

Yet Obama won on the economy, above all else. The pretense of realignment always depended on the opposite read. Republicans' implosion, demographic trends and rising progressive values were to have built this new Democratic majority. But we knew from tracking polls that Obama only garnered majority support after the market crashed.

Obama's mandate was not consumed with the very issue that sealed his coalition. Obama had campaigned on the health care bill. But the economic crisis was the central reason his campaign had won more of the electorate than any Democrat in four decades.

And Obama did it with the middle. In 2008, Obama's margin with moderates was three times larger than the two previous Democratic nominees. Now that middle is not only moving away from Democrats. It's moving against Democrats.

Any hope of realignment, however scant, always relied on this broad middle. Enduring majorities depend on courting and marrying the least ideological voters. Yet these same voters care more about spending and are more skeptical of activist government than the public at large. They also despise partisanship.

The health care debate became a magnet for all these anxieties. Meanwhile, Washington had saved Wall Street. But absent the new New Deal, Main Street was put on hold. Obama appeared on the wrong side of the issue of his time.

The worst stereotypes of liberalism, as spendthrifts, were affirmed with the stimulus. The best stereotypes, fighting for the middle class, were undercut with the focus on health care over jobs.

The middle class was fixated on fears of extending joblessness and decimated retirement savings. Most of them had health insurance. The working class was losing the bulk of the jobs. That's all they feared.

This is no Democratic dream. And the cost is a blue reality. It was not that the dream was impossible. But the dream was only possible with the right actions. And the right moves depended on the right read of the political environment.

Now the liberal dream will have to be set aside for Obama to have a second chance in a second term. The next three years will not see the sweeping change of Obama's promise, but the incremental change more common to Washington. Gone is climate change legislation. Gone is a major jobs bill. Gone is a more progressive health care bill. And the bill itself is now at great risk.

then those Dems who do the motivating are going to have to be the primary challengers. Because the Dem voters who are so discouraged now will not buy into any acting performances from the same incumbants that have been kicking them in the teeth for the past year.

And the democrats claiming that they needed this election to cement their agenda, only cemented Coaklye's loss.  Not because American's don't like Obama or the agenda.  Just because they like the underdog.

Plus, Brown looks awfully good half-naked.