Eh, I don’t have a mortgage now, so I’m just gonna stock up on canned goods, get a shotgun, and scream “Get offa my lawn!” Sure, my neighbors will try to point out that the courtyard is technically a “common area,” but they can explain that to Ole Blue! I got mine, screw the rest of youse!

(In seriousness, I think it’s worth remembering that for people on the bottom of the ladder, times are bad no matter who is winning or losing elections, and it being winter, now might be a good time to make donations to the local food pantry or give away clothes or blankets if you’re not using them.)

Maybe we need our own midget with a broom. What’s Dukakis up to these days?

That wouldn’t be so bad, Allan.

Ten years ago, I was a libertarian leaning independent who didn’t trust either party.

Six years ago, I was a Democratic leaning independent who completely despised the Republicans.

One year ago, I was a wildly enthusiastic Democrat.

Today, I am a raging liberal who once again trusts neither party.

Regarding the truck:  What never ceases to amaze me is Democrats’ complete inability to grasp that this play-to-the-cheap-seats stuff actually works.  Why is that?  Don’t we liberals control the media?  Why don’t we understand what presses ordinary citizens’ buttons?

Trucknutz! Also.

Thinking about it overnight, I realized something.  Something that’s gonna piss off the PUMA kitties.

Coakley made the exact same mistake Hillary Clinton did.  She went into the race thinking it was a done deal, that she was the inevitable winner, and went on cruse control the entire race.  Her entire campaign was tainted by this thought, that they didn’t have to work for the win.  Even down to allowing her opponent to define her rather than challenging that definition. 

Even at the end, when the polls saw her tanking, it seems like Coakley figured “the internal polls say otherwise” and put up a token fight.

Brown, on the other hand, took a page from Obama’s playbook.  He posed himself as a change candidate, defined the opposition, and worked hard for his win.  (It’s telling that some of his supporters were calling him the “White Obama” - shades of the “great white hope”!)

Better the wake up call now than in the mid-term elections or in 2012, but damn it, the Democrats have got to stop with the circular firing squad, have got to stop trying to play nice, have got to stop fretting about “60 vote supermajorities” and “bipartisanship”.

Because here’s a newsflash - bipartisanship only works when the other side is willing to work with you.  And the GOP has made it their stated goal to do everything they can to cause this administration to fail.  They’re not interested in playing nice or fair or even in the rules.  So guess what Democrats - you still have a majority in the house and senate, so for the Gods’ sakes USE IT!!  Freaking grow a pair and a spine, because right now you’re acting like a herd of castrated jellyfish with the leadership skills of a wet dishrag.

Gee, you can’t get through to Evan Bayh’s office to speak with a human being because of a “high volume of calls.”

I guess I’m not the only one inviting him to go get re-elected without the money, energy and enthusiasm of the Democratic base.

So guess what Democrats - you still have a majority in the house and senate, so for the Gods’ sakes USE IT!!  Freaking grow a pair and a spine, because right now you’re acting like a herd of castrated jellyfish with the leadership skills of a wet dishrag.

Yeah right, like that’s gonna happen. I think what we should all do is team up with batshit insane Republican operatives and go after all Democrats who don’t magically transform our nation into paradise. It worked for Coakley, amirite? Democrats don’t have majorities, they have Bayh, and Nelson and Heath Fucking Shuler. There are two parties all right, the Republicans and the batshit insane Republicans.

Patrick, I think that’s a rather strained analogy. Yes, there was an assumption of inevitability around Hillary’s campaign, but that woman is no slacker. She wouldn’t have taken off on vacation in the middle of such a brief campaign. And she’s certainly not tone-deaf enough to insult the local team and its fans.

The magnitude of the unforced errors in the Coakley campaign overwhelms the dopey mistakes of the Clinton campaign.