Massholes

So, Ted Kennedy's seat goes to the Republicans. Republicans interpret this in the only way they know how ("EVERYONE has an irrational hatred of Democrats!"), and columnists call it a referendum on Obama. I'm inclined to agree with them, if only indirectly. This election is a referendum on the leadership in Congress. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi had the entire government on a silver platter, and couldn't manage to do anything with it. They allowed special interests and morons to dominate the health care debate over the summer when they should have had something concrete worked up. They allowed irrational fear-mongers scream about bureaucratic health care and death panels while they did nothing to extol the virtues of what they were trying to do. They failed to pass clean energy legislation. They failed to reign in corporate payouts. They failed to do anything about education, labor, trade, or immigration. In short, they did not strike while the iron was hot, and now they look like asses.

So what does Obama have to do with this? Very little. And that's the problem. He stepped back to allow these jackasses to take the lead. Maybe he was scared of repeating Clinton's mistakes, and being rebuffed if he handed them a cut and dried agenda. Maybe he was starry eyed because of the seniority of Reid. Who knows. The fact is, Americans didn't want Reid or Pelosi to shape the agenda - they were put in leadership positions by Washington politicians. Americans want Obama to shape the agenda, and I hope this election serves as a wakeup call to the White House that they need to get off their asses and start putting people's nuts in a vice.