Brown wins in Massachusetts

By David Montgomery
Published/Last Modified on Tuesday, Jan 19, 2010 - 08:32:47 pm CST

The AP is reporting that Republican Scott Brown has beaten Democrat Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts Senate race.

This is obviously huge news in terms of the balance-of-power in the Senate, where Democrats now have a handful of options with health care, having lost their 60th vote. They can A) give up on the current bill, B) find a way to poach a Republican like Olympia Snowe to get them to 60, C) have the House pass the Senate bill as is and make changes later.

(The mere fact that a Republican won in Massachusetts, balance of power in the Senate aside, is not a "hell freezing over" moment, as I wrote earlier today.)

The medium term political prognosis: President Obama's State of the Union speech is going to be incredibly important. It's going to be his best chance to regain control of the narrative.

(Though let's not forget — the Democrats still have 18 more Senators than the Republicans.)

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