Doing some thinking out loud. At risk of pointing out the obvious, here are the steps that led to Massachusetts electing a total dipstick:

1) Republicans destroyed the country.

2) Dems took power.

3) Repubs blocked everything Dems tried to do, which is easy because 1/3 of Dems are basically Repubs.

4) Progressives get angry at Dems for not doing enough, while wingnuts go ballistic at Dems for trying to do anything at all.

5) Everyone hates the Dems, and the party that destroyed the country gets elected again. Whee!

How are the Dems most at fault? For not putting forth a strong enough narrative. Not calling out the Repubs' obstructionism made it seem like the gridlock was the Dems' fault. Right-wing Dems with ties to health insurance companies should have been publicly shamed by their own party. Obama, as I suggested last week, should have been using his rhetorical skills to frame the issues and go on the attack, but he's coming off more and more lately as an aloof technocrat. And he definitely needed to throw more bones to the base that elected him, an oversight the Dems seem intent on repeating through the decades. Now matter how much your hands are tied, you can still at least try to inspire.

A lot of lefties are noting that the Dems still have an 18-seat lead in the Senate, as though a third of the party weren't right-wing, market fundamentalist, Glenn Beck-cowed, industry-owned schmucks. Not terribly comforting, if you ask me.