It is the first serious wakeup call to Barack Obama

It is the first serious wake-up call to Barack Obama. A year after his arrival in power, the victory of the candidate Scott Brown, a "moderate" Republican of fifty years in the physics of Hollywood actor, at the headquarters of the Massachusetts Senator, left vacant following the death of Ted Kennedy, is a real setback for the Democratic President. All the more devastating as the President was personally engaged in the campaign to support the Democratic candidate Martha Coakley, in loss of speed. "We have been so busy to act and to deal with urgent crises that we have somehow lost the meaning of the direct contact with the Americans on their core values", regretted yesterday the US President. By losing to the Democratic Party its valuable qualified majority of 60 seats in the Senate, the victory of Scott Brown in the fief of the Kennedy, where Barack Obama himself had achieved a score of 62 in the presidential election, could seriously influence the calendar reforms.

Real time wake-up call

"Normally, the election of a junior senator (Editor's Note: one of the two Senators of the same State) has no major consequence." "In this case, it will have a considerable impact on the agenda of Obama for the rest of his term, or the less in 2010," said the Director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program, Robert Blendon. In the wake of the victory of Scott Brown (52 versus 48 for Martha Coakley), democratic elected officials met yesterday emergency to examine the chances of saving the reform of health insurance whose enactment was planned before the speech on the State of the Union of 27 January. The flip side is symbolic, it intervenes in the State where Ted Kennedy had fought his entire life to the establishment of a universal coverage of health, before passing the torch to Barack Obama. But the future of the draft law on emission permits for CO2 ("cap and trade") to combat climate change, defended by John Kerry in the Senate, may also be largely compromised, not to mention the impact on the reform of the financial regulation.

"It is a major change." "By giving a blocking minority Republicans, vote risk compromising the reforms in the field of health, climate, but energy policy in a system where the Congress has such power of initiative that the Executive", said Nicholas Dungan, former President of the French American Foundation. Still fragile, the majority of the 60 seats, acquired in the spring last the rally through surprise Republican Senator Arlen Specter, had so far prevented the Republicans play parliamentary obstruction mechanisms ("filibustering") to block health reform. Despite its adoption by the Senate on Christmas Eve, it must still vote on the final text of its reconciliation with the House Bill.

Real time wake-up call to ten months in the 2 November mid-term elections ahead hard for Democrats, the victory of Scott Brown does not prevent the Democratic Party retained a significant majority in Congress. But some commentators see already the "obituary" of the universal health plan. The flip side of Massachusetts is often attributed to too lax policy of administration Obama to Wall Street. Some commentators particularly regret that the President had waited so late to raise the tone against Wall Street and its "bonus" obscene Others believe that it will have to focus on employment and the fight against the deficit. It remains to be the US President to unveil his plan of "reconquest" in his speech on the State of the Union of 27 January.