Gannett has a new piece out this morning exploring the various Democratic reactions to the Scott Brown win. As can be expected, Dems are seeing what they want to see:
Liberals, from union leaders to anti-war activists, said Brown won because Obama and Democrats in Washington weren’t bold enough in pushing health care reform and other initiatives. They were already angry at Obama for not closing the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay soon enough and for building up American troop strength in Afghanistan.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Brown’s victory “should be a sobering reminder . . . that people are urgently expecting results from Washington.”
But centrist Democrats, including such influential voices as Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., are urging a reassessment of party priorities and tactics.
Centrist policy activist Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute, says it’s “gut-check time for Democrats.”
Marshall is urging the White House and congressional Democrats to push forward on health care reform. He says Obama is caught in a “progressive paradox,” in which Americans still support the president’s goals but believe he hasn’t delivered fast enough.”What surprises me most about the Massachusetts vote and the inchoate popular anger that it seems to reflect is this judgment that Obama has moved too far to the left,” Marshall said. “By and large, I don’t think that’s true. By and large, I think he has been quite pragmatic in his approach to the issues. That is why you hear a lot of moaning and groaning on the left, even talk of betrayal.”
Uh-huh. Well, if Trumka and Marshall aren’t receiving money under the table from the GOP to sabotage the Democrats for 2010, they’re being awfully generous with their time.






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