The Hollywood Liberal

How Did Brown Become the ‘Change’ Candidate?
Christopher Beam, Slate
BOSTON"”At a rally here on Sunday, President Obama told Massachusetts voters that Democratic senatorial candidate Martha Coakley would move the country forward, while her opponent, Republican Scott Brown, would move it backward. But Obama's goal, too, was to turn back time"”just not as far. He wanted to go back to, say, November 2008, when Democrats were the “change” candidates, populist anger was directed at Republicans, and voters blamed another president not on the ballot for their problems. That's one reason the Massachusetts…

Obama: The Man or the Movement?
Joan Walsh, Salon
What strange forces conspired to schedule a crucial, down-to-the-wire Senate race that Democrats can't afford to lose, almost exactly a year to the day after Barack Obama's historic inauguration? For Obama supporters, there's no time to commemorate the glorious events of a year ago. All that joy and promise has turned to dread and doubt, as a defeat for Martha Coakley on Jan. 19 could block Obama's signature policy initiative, health care reform. If she loses, Obama wakes up Jan. 20 to endless news cycles declaring his presidency, having lost its 60-vote Senate majority,…

Haiti No Stranger to Suffering
George Packer, The New Yorker
The night after the earthquake, Haitians who had lost their homes, or who feared that their houses might collapse, slept outdoors, in the streets and parks of Port-au-Prince. In Place Saint-Pierre, across the street from the Kinam Hotel, in the suburb of Pétionville, hundreds of people lay under the sky, and many of them sang hymns: "God, you are the one who gave me life. Why are we suffering?" In Jacmel, a coastal town south of the capital, where the destruction was also great, a woman who had already seen the body of one of her children removed from a building learned…

Boston Globe Puts Its Thumb on Scale for Coakley
Tom Bevan, RCP Blog

Lock on Senate is a Mixed Blessing for Obama
Michael Barone, Examiner
Year One of the Obama administration ends Wednesday. Another era may come to an end the day before, when Massachusetts voters — or at least those of them motivated enough to vote — choose a senator to fill the three years remaining in the term of Edward Kennedy, who held the seat for 47 years.If Republican Scott Brown wins that election — and at this writing he seems to have an excellent chance to do so — that election will mean the end, after just seven months, of the Democrats' 60-seat supermajority in the Senate.