But while Scott Brown could get elected as the anti-Obama figure — and while others will be able to pull that off in the fall — the GOP needs to be sure that it doesn’t just look like it’s lining up for its turn at the trough. Polls show that most Americans want smaller government, even with fewer “services.” Running on a platform that money’s better kept in voters’ own pockets, rather than handed over to special interest logrolling and vote-buying, will work: If it’ll work in Massachusetts, it should work pretty much anywhere. It is a fashionably-gloomy line among some on the right to say that the country’s too far gone in statism and the government-handout parasite culture to support such an approach — but again, if you can make it with this in Massachusetts, you can make it pretty much anywhere.

Efter min mening har amerikanske vælgere både i november 2008 og nu her i januar 2010 slået fast, at de er trætte af den måde, Washington fungerer på: de er trætte af valgflæsket, bestikkelsen, særinteressernes hærgen. Republikanerne skal imidlertid ikke tro, at det er et carte blanche til dem til at komme tilbage til magten. Tværtimod: Obama blev valgt som protest mod Bush, nu er Brown blevet valgt som protest imod Obama. Det er tid til selvransagelse, ikke kun hos demokraterne, men i hele Washington.