Honestly, I’m getting sick of posting on this general topic.  However, the fallout from recent events has brought to a head a lot of the frustration that this voter has been feeling for the last year.  Not the last two years.  Not the last eight years.  The last, single, year.  It is arrogance that inspires my angst.

Now this word, arrogance, is thrown around a lot in political talk.  I’m here to discuss what it means to me, but my guess is that I’m not alone in my definition.

For me, arrogance refers to the attitude in Washington, and especially with our President, that says, “We know better that you do what is in your best interest.”

And despite being taken to the woodshed in Massachusetts, President Obama appears not to have the first idea that this kind of arrogance is part of his problem.  Excerpts from his interview with George Stephanopoulos after the Massachusetts special election …

“People are angry, and they’re frustrated. Not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years.”

Let’s just ignore the tired “Blame Bush” strategy.  This is classic Obama.  Polling of the voters in Massachusetts made it abundantly clear that Brown’s victory was a repudiation, not solely of Obama, but definitely of specific events that have been part of the past year’s orgy of appropriation in our nation’s Capitol.  Still here is Obama, helping the voters understand why they voted the way they did, just in case they didn’t know.  See, our President the narcissist believes that he can say anything and make it be so through the sheer force of his personality.

“If there’s one thing that I regret this year, is that we were so busy just getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of us, that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people about what their core values are …”

This was the telling one.  Is he suggesting he embarked on the past year’s grand agenda without knowing or considering the values of the American people.  Doubtful.  He didn’t suggest listening to the American people.  He suggested talking to them.  So I believe his point is far more sinister than that.  He regrets that he didn’t do a good enough job of telling us what our values are or should be.  Again, he believes that through artful persuasion he can change the core of a man.  Frankly, that arrogance pisses me off.

If you look behind a lot of what the President has undertaken this year you’ll see that these aren’t isolated issues that needed fixing.  He is seeking to impose a fundamental change in how Americans act and what they value.  For example, he blatantly seeks to undermine the corporate leaders and prop up unions.  Through “Cash for Clunkers” he attempted to prop up a union-dominated industry in a not too subtle way, by paying citizens to buy new cars.  The last handout attached to the now faltering health care initiative was the exemption for union members.  This wasn’t just to curry favor for the bill.  It was to create a situation that would incentivize union membership.  Screw “Card Check.”  Who needs intimidation when bribery will do the trick?

Of course, in the words above and throughout the interview he repeated that he feels he just didn’t do a good enough job of explaining x to the American people.  For the love of God, NO!  Does this mean that now he’s going to do even more talking?  On the contrary, it’s high time for President Obama to shut up and listen!

Thankfully he won’t … even to save his own skin.

Scott Brown the Republican did not win last night’s special election for the US Senate seat vacated by the passing of Ted Kennedy.  Scott Brown the guy who isn’t a partisan, out of touch, political hack won.

Thank God he knows it.  In his acceptance speech Brown used party labels only once, in talking about how he will work with Democrats and Republicans.  He saluted Massachusetts independents twice in the opening moments of the speech.  But trumping them all he used “machine” in a derogatory reference to the political establishment, five times.

This was not a victory for Republicans.  It was a victory for the angry and fed up.  If Republicans want to claim a party victory and immediately begin counting November victories, let them.  This will make it that much easier to identify those on that side of the aisle who also need to be shown the door.

Obviously the big news is Massachusetts.

I had two concerns coming into the night.  1. There was so much focus on Scott Brown winning, that the main message would be lost if Coakley somehow salvaged a narrow victory.  Victory was won and the message sent when President Obama had to run back to Massa-freakin-chusetts two days before the election to try to save a Democrat.

And 2. That this voter uprising would serve as a wake-up call for all of the political hacks in Washington, and allow them to pull out of their self-inflicted nose dive just in time to avoid disaster next November.  Bill Bennett pointed out this morning that victory obscures the message while defeat clarifies it.

Well, #1 is a moot point.  But the fact that Brown won makes #2 even more straightforward.  All year long the Big Government crowd has ignored signal after signal and continued to pursue their hard left agenda.  This was a shot across the bow that can’t be ignored.

Thankfully I don’t believe it is possible to under-estimate a politician.  Early indications out of the White House and Congressional Leadership show a clear willingness to continue to test the limits of voter fury.  I must admit, I’m surprised.  These guys may not have the first clue how to fix health care or the economy, but they do know all about personal survival.  Of course they’ve never had to play the game without compliant voters before.  It’s a sea change for which they are unprepared and ill-equipped.

One last thing:  I’m sick of hearing how Obama is a moderate just because he has done a few things that aren’t ultra-liberal such as parting with the Public Option and stepping up in Afghanistan.

Pfft.  Please.  He may be clueless but he’s not an idiot.  You know, before he was in that one ceremony he was in that other one.  Obama has departed from his agenda only when he had no choice.  To pull out of Afghanistan would have been a disaster.  A very public, highly visible, disaster.  And the public option didn’t have a chance.  He gave up what he couldn’t keep.

But enough of what he didn’t do.  There are plenty of actual accomplishments of note from Barry’s first year on the job.  He has presided over concerted efforts to interfere with business and redistribute wealth, the likes of which hasn’t been for decades, if ever.  He has undermined our intelligence infrastructure leaving us vulnerable.  But hey, the media is all too happy to give him credit for admitting that we’re vulnerable, so it’s all good.  Rogue nations around the world thumb their noses at us and the apology world tour failed to win any allies in an effort to curb them.

In short … moderate, my ass.

I couldn’t be happier at hearing that Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan have lost the will to fight, albeit futilely, for their Senate seats in this year’s election.  Especially Dodd.  It’s a just comeuppance for that smug little white-haired douche bag.

Personal animosity aside, here’s what really thrills me about this.  We finally have voters holding their elected officials, the pols who work FOR them, accountable.  I’ve watched an electorate that is, and for a long time has been, overwhelmingly dissatisfied with Washington go to the polls in cycle after cycle and send the same team back into the game.  This has been the problem, and I have wondered if a fix were possible.

The mess that we’re in is not the fault of the Democrats or the Republicans.  This is on the voters.  These guys and gals are simply carrying on as they’ve been allowed to for far too long.

So, here’s where my enthusiasm is tempered.  Already talk on the GOP side has turned to political calculations and how the Democrats are in trouble.  Again, it’s not about parties.  It’s about incumbents receiving a long overdue beat-down.  I’ll be all too happy if a bunch of Republican heads roll as well.

Republicans need to stay on message, and that message can’t be “We might pick up x seats in 2010.”  I don’t want to know how so-and-so stepping down shakes out for the 2010 election and how the GOP will benefit.  I still want to hear why the GOP benefitting would be a good thing.  Not so much because I need to know, but rather to see whether the GOP actually knows.

Truth is, I’m still only slightly less angry with my party for the current mess than I am the Democrats.  Republicans’ frittered away their opportunity in power and set up the 2006 and 2008 debacles.  I want to hear that my candidates get it.  That they can look beyond how the electorate’s disaffection can benefit them, and understand why that disaffection exists.

For my money, the best thing that could come of this potential voter uprising … TERM LIMITS.

Now pardon me, but I need to go get under the covers before I catch pneumonia in all this global warming.

Guidos:  OK, they are welcome in the 10’s, but can we just leave them on the Jersey shore and off TV.  Admittedly I don’t watch, but it seems like every time I slide by MTV, there it is, enough hair gel to power a third-world country for a year.  I did watch when they first did this a couple years ago.  The featured Guido on there had a temper and I was hoping to see him get tazed in some kind of run-in with the police.

Mid-Major Rationalization:  As I write this I’m keeping an eye on the TCU – Boise State game, and it’s just a mid-major love-fest.  On each play we don’t just hear what happened, but also praise for the players’ knowledge in making the play.  It’s like we’ve got 22 Tim Tebow clones running around out there with all the fawning from the booth.

These guys don’t play a champions’ schedule, and I’m sick of hearing the contrived statistics that are used in an attempt to rationalize that.  The latest is that TCU beat 6 teams who won their bowl games.  Half of division I goes to bowl games.  Big freaking deal.  Each year, the teams that are up for the National Championship play 2-3 other teams who could win it all before they even get to the final game.  The Boise State’s and TCU’s don’t play any.  Playing a few carefully selected mediocre teams from the major conferences amid a schedule full of cupcakes doesn’t elevate a team to elite status.

Lame Beer Commercials:  Coors Light, Bud Light, you’re letting us down.  Those Coors Light spots where they splice in clips from football coach press conferences jumped the shark at inception.  And the “Too Light / Too Heavy” spots … another idea that seems like it should have possibilities but suffers mightily in the execution.  Come on guys.  I still remember the golden days with Bob Uecker in the “Less Filling / Tastes Great” spots for Miller Lite.  Those are some big shoes to fill.

Politicians Who Don’t Govern The Way They Run:  I know, now I’m just getting greedy.

Yesterday or so, I received a FB invitation to join the group “Petition To Remove Group ‘Soldiers Are Not Heroes’".  As much as I would love to sign such a petition and am in complete sympathy with those who are disgusted by the group that inspired this, I can not join.

The sacrifice of our military heroes throughout our history purchased, among other things, freedom for the American people.  That includes freedom to be a clueless jackass.  So there is the irony.  The very thing the “Soldiers are not” group is speaking out against is what provided the liberty to speak in the first place.

Thomas Jefferson had it right:  “"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."  Our nation decided this even before it was a nation, and has re-affirmed throughout the centuries since.  I believe this is true, and I believe it is important.

So, I can’t set that aside because I’m suddenly faced with an issue about which I feel personally.  As important as freedom is each person having a code of beliefs that they hold to and act on consistently.

All of that said, the other side of this coin is that those who disagree are also free to speak out with passion.  So, I hope everyone flames the crap out of the “Solders are not” group.

Now you know why the rush on a Health Care bill:  This is a lesson for us all.  The power structure in Washington has no interest in the voice of the voter.  They tried to jam health care through this summer before constituents could get a hold of their reps over the break.  Hoping that had died down they made another run at it before voters once again had a chance to speak with a loud voice, yesterday.  These are the times we are fortunate to have ineffective elected reps.

And “birth certificate” never came up?  Weird:  This is not a time to celebrate, GOP.  It’s a time to take notes and get to work.  Bashing is not a viable, long-term strategy.  McDonnell won big in Virginia by having a positive message and a plan.  Again, bashing Obama will not carry the day.  We need a message.  We need a plan.

This wasn’t a referendum on Obama, but …:  Voters had plenty to say about the tax and spend, insatiable government lust for control agenda being pushed by Obama, Reid and Pelosi.  And, in a sense, this was voters’ first chance to weigh in the Obama platform.  The real Obama platform.  You know, the one he kept hidden behind a smokescreen of nebulous single words and platitudes for a year and a half.

It’s the Candidate, Stupid:  A good candidate can go far, and it’s hard to overcome a bad one.  Lacking the free “advertising” that comes with being a Democrat, this is especially important for Republicans.  Corzine had no compunction about using Chris Christie’s weight to score points.  Actually I think that appearance is one thing that helped Christie come off as a “regular guy” type, more in touch with voters.  It didn’t hurt that, like McDonnell, he had a message that resonated with the angry, Garden State voters.

On the contrary, Scozzafava, like John McCain before her, proved that it doesn’t matter what mantle you put on some crackpots.  Scozzafava isn’t NY-23 voters’ fault.  But this is still a lesson the GOP seems slow to learn.

Sarah Palin is dangerous:  Hear me out.  Personally I’m a big fan of the former Alaskan Governor.  But I’m not convinced she can got the distance.  In fact, I’m pretty convinced she can’t.  But!  There is no doubt she’s a power player.  She may have just enough clout to f things up come 2012 – enough juice to knock out a candidate with General Election potential but not enough to win.  On the other hand, it’s still my dream to see a Palin – Hillary showdown.  I do believe hockey mom could kill the beast once and for all.

NY-23:

Dede Scozzafava’s withdrawal was good news, though it was tempered some by her endorsement, today, of Democratic candidate Bill Owens (can’t imagine why Conservatives didn’t like her).  Still, reducing the race to a clear head-to-head contest is a good development.

The White House, and their willing media stooges were poised to jump on an Owens victory as validation of President Obama.  Never mind that the victory would have been fueled by Owens’ opposition being divided.

New Jersey:

In the 11th hour it appears Christie is surging, despite an Obama-assisted weekend blitz by Corzine.   However, to be fair, also despite Obama’s involvement, this one isn’t a referendum on the President.  New Jersey residents don’t have the luxury of making this a philosophical exercise.  They are drowning in taxes.

On the other hand, this IS a referendum on Obama-esque, big government, tax and spend policies.  Also, this is New freakin’ Jersey we are talking about here.  The fact that it’s even close is already an embarrassment to the liberal elites.

Virginia:

That Obama has abandoned Deeds’ sinking ship should tell you all you need to know about this race, and Obama.  Of the key races, this one has the largest element of being a referendum on Washington leadership.  To be fair, whenever I read “person on the street” quotes from the rags in VA, it seems general disillusionment with Washington is fueling things.  Republicans don’t rate much higher at the end of the day.  They just have the good fortune of not being in the seats of power these days.

– B –

Here’s the thing.  We’ve all got a dog in these fights.  Nothing will put the brakes on drastic health care reform efforts more than sweeping Democratic defeats on Tuesday.  Granted, we should already be there with a state that Obama carried (VA) already in the bag, and perennial blue New Jersey still being too close to call on the eve of the election.  Outright defeats will be a shot across the bow to Congressional Democrats facing re-election in 2010.

A busy day for the President.

Word is that in addition to the Nobel Peace Prize, Barack Obama has also won the Heisman Trophy, the Miss Teen USA crown, and the Academy Award for Best Picture.  Sunday he’ll be named Food Network’s Next Iron Chef and tomorrow, over lunch, he’ll win $50 for collecting Mediterranean and Baltic Avenues in McDonald’s Monopoly.

Phew!  No wonder he doesn’t have time to meet with General McChrystal.

Count me among those who won’t be rushing right out to get the H1N1 vaccine, which is now available.  There are two very simple reasons:  1. I’m not convinced that it’s safe, and even if I was, 2. I’m not convinced that it works.

Of course, since the federal government is assuring us that it’s all good, I’m re-thinking.  I mean, this is the same organization that shrewdly turned those billions of dollars of stimulus $$ into how many million lost jobs?  Heck, I may just host a H1N1 vaccine party!  That would rock.  Strictly BYOP … Bring Your Own Prius.

I jest.  Our government is relentlessly trying to establish itself as the perpetual and only savior, and answer to all.  They’ve done nothing to inspire trust.  If this is like anything else they’ve put their hand to, there’s at least an even money chance they’ve screwed it up, and a better than even chance that we wouldn’t find out about it for years if they had.  I’m certainly not letting anyone inject the fruits of their incompetence into my body.