Week in Review: One Year Later, Still Politics as Usual?

Election 2009 was a disappointment for progressives, who saw Democrats lose key races and Maine overturn the right of same-sex couples to marry.  Just one year earlier, we were celebrating the election of Obama. What’s the connection? On Wednesday, we ran a full hour live, discussing the elections. Our panel agreed on one thing: Democrats neglected the base that the Obama campaign worked so hard to build up.

Jehmu Greene, of the Women’s Media Center and formerly Rock the Vote, notedthat Democrats reverted back to the old way of doing things, and Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake pointed out that the candidate who supported the public option, Bill Owens in NY-23, won, while Creigh Deeds in Virginia, who said he might opt the state out if he was governor, lost. Mark Green of Air America, who once ran against Michael Bloomberg, noted that despite the massive outlay of cash, Bloomberg ran a tight race and could’ve been defeated if the Democrats put more effort into supporting his opponent. Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation noted that the youth vote was critical in 2008, and warns Democrats of what they risk losing if they ignore the young voters now.