A new poll found that Obama supporters who voted for Brown in Massachusetts, or stayed home, believed that "Democratic policies were doing more to help Wall Street than Main Street." A majority of people polled favored a public option, and opposed the Senate health care bill because it didn't go far enough.
2. Democrats must resist the temptation to moderate and move to the center
3. Pass real health care reform with a public option. With a sixty-seat, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, the Democrats failed at health care reform. Now they have fifty-nine seats, which is still a majority that will allow them to pass legislation. Democrats must find a way--whether through budget reconciliation, changing the Senate filibuster rules, intestinal fortitude, or other means--to pass health care reform. If the Senate Republicans want to filibuster, and justify a broken system that allows 45,000 people to die each year for lack of health insurance, then so be it. This is President Obama's signature issue, and he has spent a great deal of political capital on it.
4)Go after the banks. Obama captured the presidency on a message of change, disrupting the status quo and challenging entrenched centers of power. In the days of the Great Recession, millions of people are suffering from chronic unemployment, home foreclosures and financial ruin. The public has properly identified the big banks as the cause of America's economic meltdown.
The 2010 elections are still far away, and a lot can happen between now and November. Ironically, the defeat in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race was the best thing that could have happened to President Obama. Still faced with a weakened and unpopular opposition, the Democratic Party has a unique opportunity to learn from its missteps, and come back stronger than ever.
For more: USHow Obama and the Dems can make a comeback
Things look uncertain for the Democrats. With control of the White House and both houses of Congress, the party in power appears unprepared to lead at times, and unable to make good on its 2008 campaign promises. But there is opportunity in times of crisis, and the Obama administration just got a badly needed wake-up call, a "come to Jesus" moment, if you will. The future still looks bright for the Democrats, provided they take a number of important steps:
1. Obama must take the lead and set the agenda.2. Democrats must resist the temptation to moderate and move to the center
3. Pass real health care reform with a public option. With a sixty-seat, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, the Democrats failed at health care reform. Now they have fifty-nine seats, which is still a majority that will allow them to pass legislation. Democrats must find a way--whether through budget reconciliation, changing the Senate filibuster rules, intestinal fortitude, or other means--to pass health care reform. If the Senate Republicans want to filibuster, and justify a broken system that allows 45,000 people to die each year for lack of health insurance, then so be it. This is President Obama's signature issue, and he has spent a great deal of political capital on it.
4)Go after the banks. Obama captured the presidency on a message of change, disrupting the status quo and challenging entrenched centers of power. In the days of the Great Recession, millions of people are suffering from chronic unemployment, home foreclosures and financial ruin. The public has properly identified the big banks as the cause of America's economic meltdown.
The 2010 elections are still far away, and a lot can happen between now and November. Ironically, the defeat in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race was the best thing that could have happened to President Obama. Still faced with a weakened and unpopular opposition, the Democratic Party has a unique opportunity to learn from its missteps, and come back stronger than ever.
For more: USHow Obama and the Dems can make a comeback
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