Posted on 05/21/2010 2:25:35 PM PDT by upchuck
It began last November in statewide races in Virginia and New Jersey. Then it swept through Massachusetts in a stunning U.S. Senate special election this January. Most recently, it has spilled over into primary battles in Utah, Kentucky and Pennsylvania – growing more potent as the calendar year advances toward a climactic November 2010 showdown.
“It” is the ongoing, unequivocal public repudiation of the agenda of President Barack Obama – a seismic shift in the thinking of the American electorate regarding the sort of “change” they want for their country. In several races “it” is also a direct rejection of Obama himself – as evidenced by the deaf ear voters turned to his personal appeals on behalf of Massachusetts’ Attorney General Martha Coakley and party-switching Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter.
Both Coakley and Specter enjoyed commanding leads over their opponents prior to Obama’s active engagement in their races, with Specter enjoying a 21-point cushion over Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak as recently as last month (Sestak ended up defeating Specter by a 54-46 percent margin). Similarly, Sen. Scott Brown trailed Coakley by 17 points just two weeks before pulling off his improbable five-point upset victory.
In both races, Obama appeared in radio and television ads on behalf of the losing candidates – and in the Massachusetts race he paid a last-minute visit to the Bay State in an unsuccessful effort to rally Coakley’s faltering campaign (similar to his failed last-ditch effort to revive the flagging candidacy of New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine).
There was no eleventh hour visit for Specter – but only because Obama’s political advisors read the handwriting on the wall and were desperate to avoid yet another embarrassing image of their boss with his arms draped around another losing candidate. Accordingly, after pledging to give Specter his “full support,” when Election Day rolled around Obama was nowhere to be found – and wasn’t even following the race “all that closely,” according to his spokesman.
How’s that for loyalty?
Also worth noting was the tremendous shot in the arm that Sestak’s campaign received when he revealed that the Obama administration (in typical “Chicagoland” fashion) offered him a high-paying federal job in exchange for dropping his primary challenge against Specter – a charge which has yet to be properly investigated, but which served as a turning point in the race.
Meanwhile, halfway across the country in Kentucky another repudiation of Obama was taking place – albeit one that rattled the cages of a completely different set of Washington insiders. There, Kentucky ophthalmologist Rand Paul – son of Texas Congressman Ron Paul – trounced establishment Republican Trey Grayson in a race that demonstrated the growing political clout of the Tea Party movement.
Paul defeated the GOP’s hand-picked candidate by a 24 percent margin – even after Grayson received endorsements from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Vice-President Dick Cheney. Similar to Obama’s last-minute shunning of Specter, McConnell also fled the scene of his anointed candidate’s downfall – ostensibly to attend to “Washington business.”
Paul’s win was the second demonstration of Tea Party power in as many weeks, coming on the heels of Utah Republicans’ refusal to re-nominate incumbent U.S. Senator Bob Bennett. Additionally, ten other U.S. Senators and twenty U.S. Representatives are retiring from politics in advance of the 2010 elections.
What’s fueling this “wave?”
The convenient answer is “voter angst,” but the truth is that each of these elections represents a mixture of prevailing national sentiment and more regionalized root perceptions. In Pennsylvania, for example, Democrats rejected Obama’s personal appeal to support a party-switcher – while in Kentucky, Republicans rejected their party’s chosen nominee to support a candidate who they believe will be more aggressive in taking the fight to the Obama regime.
In both cases, Obama loses. And while the mainstream media continues to portray the Tea Party as part of the “fringe” of America’s political spectrum (while relying on a generic “anti-incumbency” foil to insulate Obama from the dramatic electoral defeats), the truth is the roots of this new limited government movement are deeper and stronger than anyone previously imagined. Also, reversing Obama’s harmful policies not only remains the movement’s raison d’etre – but its source of popular support.
For example, two months after its passage, the latest Rasmussen reports poll shows that 56 percent of Americans favor repealing Obama’s socialized medicine law – which is actually a higher number than Rasmussen recorded in the aftermath of Congress passing the legislation.
That’s true “staying power,” and the longer Obama continues to ignore America’s rejection of him, his candidates and his agenda, the stronger the movement against him will grow.
Howard Rich is Chairman of Americans for Limited Government.
Sorry, I gots to disagree. I think "it" is the sheeple finally beginning to wake up and saying, "Holy sh!t! Look what's been done to my country."
That is why the latest sign on the back of my pickup says, "CHANGE it BACK!"
I think most Americans are starting to realize that their “messiah” is an America-hater.
“the longer Obama continues to ignore America’s rejection of him, his candidates and his agenda, the stronger the movement against him will grow”
He still has enough time left to desroy the US—his ultimate goal!
.
Saw a great bumper sticker, reads “Is is WE the PEOPLE not, ME the PRESIDENT”.
Too bad that with the help of Republican politicians he will completely destroy our Country before November.
The new financial bill passed last night is the second to last nail in the coffin.
If they pass amnesty or Cap and Trade we will cease to exist as a free nation.
The Kenyan will have won and we will have let him because we are too divided and paralyzed by the left to do what needs to be done to save the Country.
“”CHANGE it BACK!”
Kudos for cleverness.
Recall that Obama, Reid and Pelosi all assured the Dems that passage of Obamacare would greatly strengthen their hand in November’s elections. The president boasted “Go for it”and arrogantly asserted “I welcome that fight.” http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/2123951,CST-NWS-health26.article
The Dems who swallowed this hook, line and sinker have got to be having as many retrospective regrets as the millions of voters who hopped onto the Obama bandwagon in 2008.
Obama somehow convinced himself that passage of Obamacare would magically erase this many first-year failures and turn around his political fortunes. Instead, he appears at best to have postponed the inevitable and in the worst case to have accelerated it!
You know that somewhere Jimmy Carter is dancing with glee at the prospect of no longer being viewed as the greatest loser in the White House during the past century or more. Indeed, he’s probably hoping or expecting “Miss Me Yet” billboards with his picture posted on them to crop up throughout America before Obama is dispatched to political oblivion in 2012.
“The Quiet Revolution”
Obozo and his team of MSM sycophants mis-took an “affirmative action” nod toward “first (black??) President” for a wider and deeper support that does not exist.
To the extent that more than 30% voted for his “agenda” it was only b/c he LIED about it over and over again.
He lied about it in public. Recall all the tapes where he promised the destruction of the energy industries (coal, oil, all of them), the insurance industry and promised higher gas prices and higher utility prices? These were remarks that he directed against his supporters, of course.
By the election, conservatives knew who he was. And so did the liberals. But the "independents" did not.
Scary, but I truly believe that we will never make it to Nov. He will orchestrate some sort of attack where he can declare martial law and make himself king. The patriots will be pushed into some kind of confrontation with his trained monkeys SEIU, and our country is lost.
We’ll probably get another one in Hawaii tomorrow.
If they pass amnesty or Cap and Trade we will cease to exist as a free nation.
The Kenyan will have won...
Don't be so ready to lay down and die if the Socialists pass their America-killing bills.
The final choice as to what this nation will be still resides with the American people. This country will only cease to exist as a free nation if all of us stand down and do nothing to take it back.
No matter what these paper-pushing traitors agree to amongst themselves, We The People have the ultimate power to undo everything they've done, and to remove them all from our government. We just have to be willing to use that ultimate power.
The patriots will be pushed into some kind of confrontation with his trained monkeys SEIU, and our country is lost.
90 million pissed off, gun owning Americans versus little over half a million (combined) in all branches of the US armed forces. And most of them will refuse orders to execute Martial Law against their fellow Americans.
Still scared?
Sheesh, anybody that isn't a beltway journalist or a politician knows how deeply rooted the Tea Party movement is.
The gibbering union thugs will not be a problem. They are mostly fat chickensh*ts selling wolf tickets. They will blow up real good. The real question is what the military and police will do when wholesale civil unrest bursts into flame.
There is more of us than there is of them. Plus, while they might have all the knives, we've got all the guns...
Not scared, but realistic. Consider the Bonus Marchers, Waco, and Ruby Ridge. The country could be effectively controlled by control of a few key transportation hubs and along with it the food supply. Little if any military versus citizen confrontation would occur. Bravado disappears when hungry.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.