Editor, The News:
Judging by the over-analyzation by the media and the outright gloating by some syndicated and local opinions published here, you’d think that Massachusetts was the only state in the union.
During this year, we have seen the party of “no” gain momentum with tea parties and charismatic former and current beauty queens and scary “we must stop socialism/Obama’s coming for your guns” tactics.
Why has this worked? Two reasons: 1. The Republican Party grabbed at anything that seemed to energize the party, no matter how radical or half-true. 2. The Democrats did nothing to counter it.
We have a leader who waits for others to lead. Even if he couldn’t get the Republicans to pull their heels out from where they had dug them in, he had the ability to speak — very eloquently and persuasively — his views on health care, the wars, the economy, and other issues that his base supported him for. Yet he did not.
He waited until Ted Kennedy’s supposed “logical” and shoo-in replacement was suddenly at risk, due to her poorly run campaign, to make a last-minute, too-little-too-late push to try and secure her victory.
Now, liberals are lamenting the loss of the “filibuster-proof” majority in the Senate. Why? They didn’t use it when they had it.
The president has spent a great deal of time reaching across the aisle to a party that is just as inflexible as before, while managing to alienate his own base.
Am I sorry I voted for President Obama? No. It beats the hell out of McCain/Palin. I just hope he has learned a few things in his first year as president.
Bonnie Humphrey
New Castle
