The one with the JUICE is the one who usually wins.

The one with the JUICE is the one who wins.

We all know this from working for Democrats in 2008. We had the juice, we had the message of "Change", we had the foot soliders, we had massive volunteers, we had Barack Obama.

Now we need to really look at the Democratic Party and ask the tough questions of, "What happened?" If we don't and just continue to say, "Aw another awful candidate, just a state thing is political suicide."

People out here are angry and they are angry at us. We need to fix it and I mean fast.

A lot has happened this past year and to be honest the public has a right to be angry.

I live in a swing district in Illinois and I worked very hard in getting Republicans and Independents to vote Democrat. One thing I will never forget is one Independent who looked me in the eye and said, "Are the Democrats going to make a difference? Will I see change?" Well, I have heard a lot from Sally, the Independent, and it is NOT NICE.

The one thing the Democrats campaigned on was change, for me this means you don't continue or do the same thing as the last regime. For all the things that have happened this year, many in the public think this is business as usual. That NOTHING has changed.

One thing Sally stated was that she did not want her money, our tax dollars to continue to bail out these banks, Wall Street. She was and still is outraged about this because as I have heard repeatedly, "Where is our bailout? Where are the jobs? When will it stop?"

Democrats, the anger is real.

To have the Obama White House, perceived to be cozy with Wall Street is disaster and not good going forward. The issues for many in the public is that of "sick and tired of health care", "no jobs", "continuing these wars when we have no money", "unfairness of Wall Street to My Street". These issues are valid and we are doing a disastrous job at addressing them.

I spoke to my sister in law, yesterday, who is out of work and things are tighter than a tick in her home. While she commends the President on health care, she does not equate that unless you have a job. The disconnect of health care to the average American is real and the White House and Democrats have done a poor job in communicating the upside of this issue. Sure, all of us reading this blog are political animals, but some of the other members of our family are not. They look at the real and what is happening to them daily. For many in this country is it jobs, unemployment. For my sister in law, not having a job means, not having health care. So, for her the economy is number one, not health care. And yes, I have argued the fact but the reality is that she is looking at her budget, one income lost, trying to hold on, and that means having a living wage as in a job.

The health care debate has exhausted everyone. At this point many moved on from this issue, biting nails at having something for the Democrats to run on, or just don't care anymore. This is not good at all, overall. People are tired of it, many don't understand it, and they don't trust it. This is the White House and Democrats fault as in not communicating to the public why this bill is in their best interest. When you campaign on health care like congress and have on your website the national federal exchange, which is the public option, but have the nerve to tell the public that you did not campaign on the public option? Barack Obama you lost some votes there, along with credibility. You need to fix that. Oh, by the way, ditching the public option has demoralized your base. I hope this can be fixed going forward.

Giving Wall Street everything was a major mistake. This is the second year that the average Joe and Josetta have to watch on television how the financial firms on Wall Street and the banks have made RECORD PROFIT OFF OUR MONEY, but My Street do not have shit to show for it. I think the Obama Administration was too cozy, loosy goosey with the banks and Wall Street. This Administration thought that Wall Street would do the right thing and open up the lending in this country. But they have not. What incentive did we give a handful of CEOs to do so? When they crashed and burned who did they run to? And who opened the purse strings with no pre-conditions? Sure, President Obama wants to implement a tax, but will it go through the congress? Most of the banks have paid the money back; they continue to give the American Public a big "F and U". For this issue alone, the American Public is not asleep at the wheel. They fully understand those who have, continued to have, and the rest who have not. In the end, they feel it is unfair. And they are right. Want to stoke anger and resentment? Just use Wall Street every time and have your party looked upon as cozy with them; you will lose a lot of elections with this formula. Wall Street and Banks need regulatory restraints, new laws, until this happens it is continued lip service from the White House and these banks will continue to screw the American Public over.

JOBS, JOBS, JOBS.

The Democrats were put in office because we are supposed to be known as being good with the economy and bringing it back. Did this White House get the memo? While many Americans have been patient with the health care dialogue and have just gotten tired of it, they have not stopped worrying about this economy and wondering if their job will be cut next. Unemployment is 10% right now. I don't expect it to go down but back up. Underemployment is 15-20%. We have over 15 million people unemployed. What is the White House or Democrats doing? I ask this because that is what my sister in law wants to know? Where are the jobs at? Are they coming back? But more importantly are we creating any new jobs? These are valid questions. Many in the country do not believe that congress is on the ball about this economy or jobs. The quickest way to lose voters is when they have to balance their checkbook monthly. And we are losing these voters because we are not moving fast enough. Bread and butter issues matter, it impacts people directly, if we cannot address this than we deserve to lose some seats. The Obama White House and the Democrats need to get out of that bubble and put their ears to the ground. People are mad.

Lack of Leadership

The Democrats period. And tonight seeing this circular gun firing at each other, no discipline, no respect, nothing even before the polls closed for Coakley says a lot. Democrats better get back to being Democrats or we will see more elections like this.

Democratic Obstructionists, wooing the hierarchy of Republicans and the bipartisan thingy...

Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln....

They have dragged this health care battle out. Joe Lieberman should have been dealt with, up front but was given a pass. How could the Democratic Leadership actually BELIEVE that this man could have been trusted is beyond me? Turning the health care bill over to senate finance committee was a bad idea. As we see, we ended up with the Baucus Bill anyway, an insurance company dream. Don't forget courting Countess Collins and Queen Snowe brought us not a damn vote. And the bipartisan thingy that this White House ran to? They need to give it up and after tonight, FOR GOOD. Remember, we can invite Republicans to the dance, but if they do not RSVP, the dance goes on without them.

Can we wake up finally? I know we have to deal with these senators but when was any whip used to them? When did they feel the wrath of the White House on them? These people have been courted and what have we gotten back? Just a lack luster disastrous health care bill is all. And this is suppose to be historic? Good luck selling that one.

The Republicans.

Scott Brown winning Ted Kennedy's seat says a couple of things to me. First, the people of Massachusetts loved the late Ted Kennedy, but they have moved on. We saw that by Brown winning. Second, this upset does not say anything for the Republican Party. What have they offered? For every issue that we tackled, they have offered nothing. Third, this win was a wakeup call to Democrats. As painful as this loss is this is a wakeup call for Democrats to start listening to its base and independents. This loss does not mean the country is turning to the Republicans, I know that from talking to my Independent and Republican friends regularly, it means we need to do what we said we were going to do from the campaign in 2008 and dammit, DELIVER. Also, one other note, Scott Brown did not run as a Republican. It was effective, he faked being independent and people fell for it. For Brown not to fess up being a Republican is a note. A note that this is how Republicans, going forward, will campaign. The name "Republican" is still very toxic, why I state that the public is not jumping for joy to vote Republican across this country.

Martha Coakley.

I knew Coakley was toast when my husband and I were watching one of the political shows and Coakley stated that Curt Schilling was a Yankee fan. Well, my husband and I both looked at each other and said, "She's toast." I am from Chicago; my father took us to Wrigley Field many times when I was little. My father still today talks of the "Summer of 1969" when the Cubs were ahead in September to win the pennant and the New York Mets came from behind and won. I knew all the players of the 1969 team, had their pictures on my wall, knew their stats, for me if I was a Boston Red Sox fan, I would have been pissed. I know for some it does not mean anything, but for Red Sox fans, YES IT DID. It means if she does not even know that, a basic Red Sox fundamental, then is she in touch with the other stuff. In the end, Coakley ran a piss poor campaign and acted like she did not have to ask anyone for their vote, that they were just going to give it to her. Well, we see that no election should be taken for granted and the Massachusetts Democratic Party, along with the DNC also should be slapped for not having this race on the radar to save it in time.

Lastly

The public likes President Obama, we all do, but what many have seen this past year is not what he said he would do as Candidate Obama. Democrats and the White House needs to take this very seriously. People are mad and they have every right to be. Democrats, we have time to get people back, but the thing is does the Obama White House and the DC Democrats get the message? Until we see that a message was gotten, expect more of this. Hopefully, the bubble in DC will burst very soon.

So, did all this sorta spread up to Massachusetts? I think so. In fact, this anger has been out there for some time now. I live in Illinois and I here plenty of it from my friends. Remember, the voter registration in Massachusetts is 2 to one over the Republicans or even higher, but it was the Democrats that did not come out to vote.

We need to remember what made people vote Democrat in 2008. So far, we have performed a very lackluster job. I really hope that this election woke some people up in congress and 1600 PA AVE, because we never, ever should have lost the late Senator Ted Kennedy's seat. That is a travesty that we all have to eat.

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