Somewhere down the line – it might be weeks, it might be months, hell, it might even be days – what happened tonight in Massachusetts will truly be understood. Right now all the talking heads on the cable channels are blathering about health care, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama and what he’ll say at his upcoming State of the Union address. That’s fine, of course. But in my mind there are some lessons to be drawn across the electorate from Scott Brown’s decisive victory over Martha Coakley in the special election for Ted Kennedy’s seat, and woe to those who turn a deaf ear:

1. As the late, great Speaker of the House Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neil once stated, “all politics is local”. Whether Democrat or Republican, incumbent or not, if you want to represent the people in your districts come November you better start listening to the people. It is pocketbook issues people are concerned about, nothing else. I don’t think Brown’s election has as much to do with the Democrats health care plan, per se, as it does with the unrelenting focus and attention paid to it for months to the exclusion of what people truly care about out there: jobs, and the economy.

2. If the Democrats want to, as NPR’s Juan Williams so stated on Fox News tonight, “double down” on health care and ram it through because they either: a) truly believe people will like it once they see what’s in it (really), or b) they’ve got nothing left to lose, I say let them do it. If they do, there will be blood on the streets and precious few Democrats left standing come November. But you know what? I actually think Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are clueless, reckless, and stupid enough to try it. I’d love to see it, it would make for great political theater.

3. If I’m an incumbent, no matter what my stand on health care is, I’m thinking about alternative ways to spend the rest of my life. Brown’s election wasn’t about Democrats or Republicans, per se, it was about Washington and the sense of entitlement out there, the sense that no one inside the Beltway cares anything about what anyone outside it thinks, only about the expansion and consolidation of their own pocketbooks and political power, funded on the backs of people who work a hell of a lot harder for their pay than they will ever do.

4. Make no mistake about it: in the end, this election, when you get right down to it, was about Barack Obama, his lack of leadership, and the state of political discourse in Washington. One year ago, “Mr. Hopenchange” was elected on his own promise of: a) “changing the way Washington works”, b) being “a uniter, not a divider”, and c) having “the most transparent administration in history”. People trusted him (I sure didn’t), believed him (ditto) and put their faith in him. So what have they received in return? A President who has abdicated his leadership to petty, partisan dolts like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. An administration that hasn’t uttered a word of complaint while allowing a bill that would radically transform the nation’s healthcare system – a full 1/6 of the nation’s economy – to be negotiated behind closed doors with senators and congressmen whoring themselves in return for their precious votes. A nation, as even the President himself admits, is more divided and polarized than when he took office. Unemployment above 10% and unprecedented reckless deficit spending. Not that he’ll listen, but Brown’s election should be a clarion call to President Obama that he, and we as a nation, can’t just spend and regulate our way out of this mess we’re in.

So now, after high-profile Democratic gubernatorial losses in Virginia and New Jersey, Scott Brown’s amazing upset in Massachusetts is Barack Obama’s Waterloo moment. A year ago, he was the the so-called “Messiah” who did nothing to downplay the adoration, unrealistic platitudes, and expectations tossed his way. Today, he’s 0-for-3 in political races where he campaigned actively for Democratic candidates in states he carried handily back in 2008. How he responds in the wake of this latest Democratic fiasco may very well seal the fate, for better or for worse, of his Presidency.

So, congratulations to the people of Massachusetts – don’t know if this “Massachusetts miracle” is enough to kick-start another American revolution, but we conservatives will take any victory that places obstacles before Obama / Reid / Pelosi and their radical socialist agenda. There’s still a lot of hard work ahead and more incumbent parties to throw out of office, but we’ll take every victory we can get.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, I’ll just pour myself another glass of Bolla Valpolicella and enjoy this video. Ahh yes, to be so young, vibrant, and, er, attractive. They must have felt like they had the whole world in the palms of their hands.

Just like Barack Obama did a little more than one year ago. What a difference fourteen months can make…

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Pool temp: 52 degrees!