Comments (61) | Add a comment
Sherman Frederick
Massachusetts election a warning to our own Harry Reid
Updated: Apr. 10, 2012 | 10:40 a.m.
Good morning, Sen. Reid. This is your wake-up call.
It's Wednesday, Jan. 20th, the high in Las Vegas will be an overcast 52 degrees. The good people of Massachusetts have elected a Republican -- and if you don't get up right now and smell the coffee, you're next.
If there's an ounce of Nevada left in Sen. Harry Reid, he'll hear that message loud and clear, because when the people of Massachusetts elect a Republican -- a Republican! -- to the Kennedy seat in the U.S. Senate, you know something's in the air. Whether Democrats such as Reid do, in fact, "get it," is another question.
Already there's Beltway crazy talk that dares to suggest the reason Democrats failed in Massachusetts last night was because:
A. The Democrat in the race, Martha Coakley, was a bad candidate.
B. The Republican in the race, Scott Brown, was a brilliant candidate.
C. Massachusetts voters hate women.
D. The Obama Nation agenda was not enacted quick enough, bold enough or liberal enough to save Coakley and now must be expedited, by hook or by crook, to save Democrats in November.
The truth is plainly simple: The reason voters of Massachusetts, the bluest of blue states, elected a Republican is because Americans increasingly renounce "Obama Nation" policies in general -- and in specific the health care "reform" bill as crafted by the coalition of the bribed in Congress.
After a full year, the people have grown weary of a president who talks pretty, promises much and delivers nothing. The misery facts don't lie: Obama Nation has brought us a 10 percent unemployment rate (1.7 million more people unemployed today than a year ago); almost $2 trillion of new outstanding public debt, and 139 bank failures.
Add to that the arrogance of a leader who thinks he's so much more self-aware than the presidents before him that he must apologize to the world for American "selfishness" (U.S. relief to Haiti, hello?), while at the same time failing to enact policies to keep Americans safe from al-Qaida terrorists, and it is no wonder Democrats find themselves in a woozy state this morning.
It's fork-in-the-road time for Harry. He either listens to the people and begins to lead (start with the Nevada polls that show deep opposition to Harry's handing of health care "reform"), or he stays the course and follows President Obama over the cliff.
I, for one, hope he will do an about-face, remember his independent Nevada heritage, and lead this country back to the center. He can do it by stiffening his spine and calling the White House to say:
"Hello, Mr. President. I'm sorry to tell you I can no longer support your legislative agenda. The people are not with you. My home state asks me to slow down your agenda to build a bigger tent of consensus on health care reform. As of today, Mr. President, this I will do, with our without you."
Does Harry have the eggs to do that?
If he doesn't ... well ... Good morning, Mr. Reid. This is your wake-up call.
Sherman Frederick is publisher of the Review-Journal and president of Stephens Media.
Comments
Terms & Conditions
The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The Review-Journal does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please use the Report Abuse button.
Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 24 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once.
Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
Dan wrote on January 20, 2010 01:52 PM: We need to defeat Harry Reid once and for all, but we need to do it with someone who is a REAL CONSERVATIVE. NOT someone who has supported the big bailouts and earmarks!!!
http://suelowdenisnotaconservative.blogspot.com/
=======================================
Is Sue Lowden really a REAL CONSERVATIVE?
What has she said that makes her a real conservative in her mind?
@Dennis,
I agree about the housing problem and things are only going to get worse as you can expect more foreclosures as ARM loans start coming due this year. The government fix was worthless and ineffective solving any of the problems.
http://dailyreckoning.com/the-second-wave-of-mortgage-defaults/
About manufacturing jobs we shouldn’t be competing with slave or subjugated labor in the first place. We don’t even make the giant generators for electric companies in the U.S. anymore and if we have problems it’s a six month wait to get just one, which could cripple our economy according to a Sixty Minutes story.
First lets talk about capitalism and communist China, plus it’s a oxymoron, now how do we have this marriage and what benefit has it been to us.
We lost a huge tax base, and now owe them tons of money we wouldn’t have if we had a strong manufacturing base and supporting businesses.
There is no such thing as cheap labor and the importing of illegal cheaper labor has been proof, as profits are privatized and social costs nationalized.
Since I’ m not qualified for president perhaps you should run for the job you seem to have the elitist arrogance of politicians.
We hear a lot about energy independence, green tech, which is a great idea but we would not be independent if every product we need is imported. While I don’t have these answers but to have a truly independent and capitalistic country we would need to be both energy and production impendent. Otherwise we are just dependent and less secure, perhaps you have the answer?
It’s not a warning for dirty Harry but the future no matter how much a flip flop old dirty Harry pulls.
Instead of reinvesting in the U.S. with jobs and manufacturing the next agenda coming in March in the House is amnesty for the criminal illegal aliens.
Priorities fools, get them right and supporting illegal aliens isn’t it.
The republicans were horrible in representing the interest of U.S. citizens but democrats are the worst and yet they think they know better. It will be a short period for the democrat majority.
Hopefully the republicans are faster learners, that the independent party isn’t so silent and congress will be forced to represent citizens instead of corporate greed and corruption.