Move to the Center!

Scott Brown's win in Massachusetts is about a lot more than just healthcare or the ability of a Republican Senate minority to now filibuster legislation they don't like. I see this as a repudiation of polarized politics...from either the left or the right poles. President Obama would do well to still make good on his pre-election promise to attempt to truly change how government can function. Most of the people in this country are in the center...clearly so for the "independents" who made the difference in electing Obama and Brown...even though few in Congress are. Mr. President, you have been elected to be our chief political leader and our head of state. The American people want you to fulfill those roles by speaking to where most of us are. If you don't move closer to us, as much a we like you personally and admire your gifts of intelligence and eloquence, we might not give you a second chance.


So, I yearn for things that, though unlikely, are still possible:

• The President, whose virtue is believed to be pragmatism...more important than loyalty...should fire Emanuel and Axelrod and find true centrists to help him define and implement an agenda more in sync with what the majority of the American people want or can at least accept as wise.
• The House should quickly elect a new Speaker. Nancy Pelosi may be invulnerable in her own district, but she's clearly too extreme for the American mainstream. We should be very wary of any person being in the position of second in line to succeed to the Presidency when he or she could never muster enough support to be elected to that office.
• And the Senate majority (at least for now) should abandon Reid (he's very likely to lose his re-election bid anyway next November) as its leader.
• Finally, the Republicans in both houses should recognize that the public holds them in very low regard as well; so, no gloating! Instead, find moderates to run next November to have a chance at recapturing majority positions. We're tired of ideologues...on both sides of the aisle