What the Democratic establishment is not picking up is being made fun of on the major Massachusetts websites for the Globe and Herald. They cackle with glee that Coakley has made the present health care "reform" a main issue, which is exactly why people are going to Brown. A law which seeks to fine people for not buying something they can't afford, a new and incredible height in Democratic Party Establishment arrogance, and a bail-out for insurance companies, is angering people who might have voted for Obama but who are the independents who could go either way. Brown has picked up on this, and makes the centerpiece of his campaign that he will stop it.
If Brown wins he'll be gone in 2012 because in a 2-1 Dems to Repub state he cannot hang on unless he were a social liberal in the mold of Gov. William Weld, which he is not. Every Repub in Mass who is viable long-term must get right with the state's overwhelmingly liberal base. Brown is an anomaly.
It's a wake-up call and...
when the party feels the cold water they will adjust, move to the left to get back the progressives who are staying home after being stabbed in the back by the Democrats too often, which is blowback from Obama's betrayals on civil liberties (FISA telcom immunity, expanding state secrets, habeas corpus,), war crimes (prosecuting torture), and most of all expansion of the wars which he was expressly elected to end (he said another 2 or 3 battalions in Afghanistan, about 10,000 troops, not 70,000 more and 10 to 15 more years as McChrystal is now saying.) The Dems in 2 years will run a Democrat with real star power, like a Joe Kennedy, or even a dogged fighter who doesn't like to lose like a Capuano, and Brown will be out. The Democratic Party can't move to the right because they can't move there much more than they already have, without losing the social liberals.
I know this is all "sue the troll" bait for all the lobbyists who seem to run this joint, but really, just trying to help.