President Obama’s ability to motivate his base voters is once again called into question. His heavy support for Specter proved ineffective. His backing of Lincoln might have been counterproductive. These two defeats follow his unsuccessful campaigns on behalf of Democrats Martha Coakey in Massachusetts, Jon Corzine in New Jersey, and Creigh Deeds in Virginia.
Specter lost his bid despite substantial help from the Democratic Party, which promised to aide in his re-election effort when he switched parties. Specter became a Democrat last year, giving Senate Democrats the 60 critical votes they needed to pass legislation without the threat of a GOP filibuster. But even with help from President Obama, who cut a television ad praising Specter, and Vice President Biden, who campaigned in person, Specter was unable to survive politically.
“I have a message — a message from the Tea Party. A message that is loud and clear and does not mince words. We’ve come to take our government back--from the special interests who think that the federal government is their own ATM
In the last 16 months, the Obama Democrats' proposals to vastly increase the size and scope of the federal government and to put federal spending on the way to doubling the national debt as a percentage of the economy have tended to sweep these cultural and foreign policy issues aside. They have increased the polarization of the parties, but have also produced some Democratic primary battles between supporters and opponents of the Obama program. The result could be a little less polarization -- but don't count on it.
President Obama put a small amount of political capital into Tuesday's primary races, but the more revealing in the end were all the things he didn't do.
Blumenthal spoke as though he were really under attack not for lying, but for joining as a reservist. "There was no certainty," he said, about where he would be sent after he joined the Reserves. Blumenthal served in a unit in Washington, D.C.
Blumenthal was asked about several newspaper articles that described him as a Vietnam vet, which he did nothing to correct. Speaking like an attorney constructing an argument in the alternative, Blumenthal said: "I may not even have seen them."
***Michael Barone's first take on last night's elections***
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Richard Grayson, Green Party candidate for Congress in Arizona's Sixth Congressional District, today admitted that he, like Connecticut Democratic Senatorial candidate Richard Blumenthal, may have misspoken regarding his Vietnam veteran status.
"I was not, technically, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the war," Grayson said. "I regret that anyone got that impression by my inartfully-worded statements when speaking to veterans' groups. I didn't mean to mislead voters by saying, 'During the Vietnam War, I was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.'"
"It was just a joke," Grayson said.
Grayson also said that he believed that his actual service to the nation at the time, as a draft-dodging, war-protesting hippie, was the functional equivalent of being the U.S.'s highest-ranking military officer.
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