For all of those who, like me, assumed the senatorial race in Massachusetts was a foregone conclusion, you might want to take a look at the news.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2010/01/our-opinion-massachusetts-senate-vote-fires-shot-heard-round-political-world.html
I didn't believe it when I got the news last night until I'd checked three different sources.
I grew up in Massachusetts, and I suspect that most of the 11.4% of the population who are registered with the Republican party would be Democrats in most other states. Still, that state will now be seating its first Republican US Senator since 1972.
The consequences are probably going to be less radical than the press is playing it. Sure, the 60-vote block in the US Senate is broken. But I think this functioned more as a warning shot across the bows of the Democrats that they need to be gearing up for the mid-term elections rather than the first stone of the avalanche.
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I followed the results as they were being posted on the Boston Globe, and found myself wondering if we were in an alternate reality. One interesting comment I heard is that Teddy Kennedy was heavily responsible: if he had resigned and thrown his weight behind a chosen successor, instead of choosing to die in office, there would almost certainly be a Democrat in that Senate seat today.
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