The One Republican Who Can Beat Obama?

Exactly one year after the inauguration of America’s first black president, the American voter sounded an alarm: preferences have changed. Scott Brown, a Republican senator for only five years, managed to strike an unprecedented blow to the Democrats by unquestionably winning the special election for the Massachusetts Senate seat. The Democrats, humiliated by defeat in a state that has been their territory for over 38 years, now find themselves fighting for not only to pass healthcare reform through Congress but especially to win back voters.

Even more so, Obama had better take Scott Brown into consideration, the Republican who proved his ability to electrify voters, since midterm elections for Congress take place at the end of the year, and the presidential election is coming up in 2012. Before then, the Democrats need to win back voters; otherwise, Obama’s run for re-election will be jeopardized.

It is true, however, that Republican Scott Brown benefited from the American people’s tendency to vote for the party not in the White House during the first years of a presidency.

It is a shocking defeat for the White House, which lost the seat held by the late Edward Kennedy. Brown’s victory was so extensive that he managed to get votes from Cape Cod, the community where the liberal Edward Kennedy lived and died.

Changing the party allegiance of the 60th, filibuster-proof vote for healthcare reform means the Democrats have to negotiate with the Republicans, which can easily be interpreted as ideological weakness. If they refuse to negotiate and choose to focus on continuing the fight, they risk paralyzing other projects along the way. Whatever the decision, the Democrats need a victory, and fast, so that by the 2012 elections, they will at least be able to point to one achievement out of the hundreds of promises made by Obama during his campaign.

Such a defeat is hard to take in, especially since there is no state as Democratic as Massachusetts. It is clear why the Democrats see the election as a reason for alarm and a sign that the public is growing increasingly impatient with what it interprets as a lack of results from Obama.

The last concern that the Democrats need was expressed by journalist Matt Drudge: “Will he [Scott Brown] run for president?” The Republicans did have a real alternative to Obama after 2008, after all.