With the GOP win in Massachusetts there has been a lot of talk about what to do with health care reform. Some on the left pushing for immediate action while others call for stopping all reform now. What I can’t understand is why we can’t at least do stage one of the process. There are a number of aspects to health care reform that are, as far as I know, quite non controversial. Preventing companies from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions Requiring that all plans provide...

President Obama was in Ohio today talking about jobs and the economy. One of the biggest employers in the region is a company called Invacare that makes high tech medical equipment. It would seem to make sense for Obama to visit that employer but he did not. Speculation is it had to do with health care reform.

As most of you already know the Supreme Court today voted 5-4 to strike down some of the restrictions on contributions by corporations and labor unions. Since there are already a number of discussions on the net regarding the specifics of the ruling I’m not going to go into depth on that area. Personally though I’ve always been a little reluctant to assign First Amendment rights to legal  entities, be they a business or a labor union. It just seems to me that people have the rights...

Reports from the Boston Globe indicate that the Massachusetts Secretary of State will send a letter to the US Senate on Wednesday informing them that Scott Brown has been elected. The results may not be official for several weeks but it is possible that he could be seated this week

Just to give us a fresh thread to discuss the future. I’ll keep updating the election thread Coakley has conceded. AP calls it for Brown CNN calls it for Brown Looks like a 100k plus victory. Just to put it in perspective, the last time the GOP held a Senate seat was 1979. The last time they took over a formerly Democratic seat it was 1946 The question now is when Brown will take office. Under Massachusetts law the local election officials have to wait 10 days for overseas ballots and they...

Looks like a margin of around 100,000 or so for Brown, depending on Boston vote. Associated Press calls it for Brown MSNBC confirms Coakley concession Update at 6:20/9:20 This thing may just be over Right now with 66% in Brown: 757,885 Coakley: 668,881 A lead of 89,000 votes In Boston we have over half the vote in and if the current trend continued then Coakley could only gain another 20,000 or so. Even if the city went 3-1 for Coakley (which is quite possible) she would only gain about 30,000. Rumors...

Report just aired on MSNBC is saying that the Coakley camp is reporting very bad turnout for Coakley and that the only issue is how much she will lose by. This is from a top Democratic official. Could we actually have the race called at closing ?

Reports are for higher than expected turnout today. Conflicting reports as to whether this is confined to the Boston area (which would help Coakley) or is even statewide (which would balance things out). However this could be a good sigh for Coakley.

With only a few hours to go before we start getting results from the unexpectedly close Senate race in Massachusetts I am sure the spin doctors on both sides are prepping for whatever the outcome is. Just to save them a little time I thought I’d suggest what they should not be saying. For the Democrats Simply put there really is not any way you can spin this one. If you lose then you’ve lost a seat you should have won by 20 points. If you manage to pull out a victory then you’ve...

The second new Governor of 2010 has taken office. Ceremony video is available on CSPAN

While he may be pretty liberal, Chris Matthews is no dummy and his analysis of the nuts and bolts of electoral politics (especially in the Northeast) is often dead on accurate. Looking at the numbers he has for key bellweathers he pretty much calls it as hopeless for Coakley. Three areas had been identified as bellweathers, Gardner, Fitchburg and Peabody. They were chosen because 1) the party registration figures in each is pretty much identical to the statewide numbers and 2) the results in each...

Update: Nate Silver now calls Brown a 3-1 favorite to win. I respect his analytical skills but will remain cautious about any GOP prospects in Massachusetts. Like many armchair analysts I’ve been following every new poll in the Coakley/Brown race and I’ve found the results hard to believe.  The idea that in the hard blue state of Massachusetts a virtually unknown Republican could defeat a long time state Attorney General seems as bizzare as the idea that I could play center for the...

Here’s something interesting MSNBC’s Ed Schultz says “I’d cheat to keep the bastards out” No media reaction at all to the statement. Imagine if a Fox host had said something like that Weasel Zippers: Honest Democrat Ed Schultz Says ?I?d Cheat? To Keep Scott Brown From Winning… And before you ask, the reason I am linking to this blog is it’s one of the few places to report the story but we’ve got Ed’s own voice saying it. If anyone has more details...

While TMV is mostly a news and politics site I think a little variety of stories is helpful and given the horrors of the recent week a little fluff might be nice. As we all know there is a battle between Conan, Jay and NBC over the late night lineup. Now reports are emerging that Mr. O’Brien’s contract did NOT specify when the show would be aired, simply that he would host the Tonight Show. Now as most of you know I am an attorney and while I do not do any sort of work in entertainment...

Who would have ever thought we’d see a headline like this and part of us would be relieved about the good news. Obviously 50,000 dead is a horrible tragedy but with other figures approaching ten times that much it might actually be a relief.

As we watch the tragedy in Haiti and the amazing efforts of the world community (led as is often the case by the United States) I hope that for once we can avoid the partisanship that seems to flow in to almost any story these days. So just to make it clear. This is not the time for those on the right to try and attack Obama for not doing enough or for spending money where he should not or any other attack. This is also not the time for those on the left to raise the Katrina story and talk about...

Obviously at this point any speculation about the death toll in the Haitian earthquake is just that, speculation. But reports from the Haitian government are talking about hundreds of thousands of deaths. In the past speculation about tolls this high have often turned out to be overstated but in this case given that the quake shattered a city of several million people there is a good chance that they numbers could be accurate. In any case the disaster is clearly one of epic proportions and it is...

One of the long term problems faced by the United States is the issue of the budget deficit and the long term debt that is being compiled. While many try to make it a partisan issue the fact is we’ve had Presidents and Congresses of both parties overspending for decades. Recently spending has soared due to the sagging economy and the argument has been that we need to spend in order to prevent economic chaos. However the ultimate solution to the US problem may be found not in Washington but...

Update: A stunning picture in the NY Times That is the National Palace, in essence the equivalent of the US White House Reports are getting worse. They now fear thousands of fatalities but nothing will be clear until morning. A long dark night for the people of Haiti.

In the category of minor but bemusing. A new attack ad from Senate candidate Martha Coakley misspelled the word… Massachusetts. Or as they tried it Massachusettes. Oooooooooooooooooooops. Story here