Brown defeats Coakley

Not a blowout- but not all that close.

With 87% of the vote in, it's Brown 52%, Coakley 47%. Teddy Kennedy's successor will be a Republican.

The question now: whether Harry Reid and the Democrats in the Senate will allow Brown to take his seat in a timely manner, or whether they'll hold out and try to keep their veto-proof super-majority until the health care thing is settled.

Preliminary polls indicate that Brown may have gotten as much as 22% of the Democratic vote. Interviews with rank-and-file Democratic voters in Massachusetts indicated that since the state has its own publicly-funded health care system, Obamacare held no great attraction- and certainly none great enough to overcome their frustration at a government in Washington which is spending beyond its (our) means, and has become increasingly unresponsive to the voters back home.

And so, tomorrow morning- on the first anniversary of President Obama taking office- the president and his fellow Democrats will be contemplating the prospect of massive losses in both Houses when the voters of the entire nation go to the polls in November.

What a difference twelve months can make!