Mass. upheaval

The health care bill making its way through the Senate is named after Ted Kennedy. Of all the ways it may yet be dismantled, the unlikeliest just happened Tuesday evening.

Mr. Everyman, the Republican who heaped praise and thanks on Independents, just beat the Democratic machine for a seat held by a Kennedy for over 50 years.

“He also defeated a hardy band of political clichés. That Republicans can’t win Senate races in deep-blue Massachusetts. That the state is devoted to “the Kennedy legacy.” That the Republican party has become hostage to extremists who would rather lose than support a pro-choice candidate. That the GOP has become a southern regional party. That what Democrats call “health care reform” is a fait accompli. That President Obama has magical powers of persuasion.”

On the eve of his first year in office, no less.

“Liberals — some of the same people who chalked up Obama’s win to the public’s new zeal for progressivism — blame the economy for the public mood. But is it really high unemployment that has moved the public against the health-care legislation, abortion, and gun control? Remember that just a few months ago the conventional wisdom was that a weak economy would build public support for Obamacare. The Massachusetts race was as close to a referendum on that legislation as can reasonably be imagined, and it lost.”

And oddly, Obama is being portrayed, all of a sudden, as not the messianic leader his most devoted supporters thought he was, but…..”just a guy”, as even admirer Jon Stewart admitted on The Daily Show.

What a year of change.