With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Michael Barone: The Harshest Repudiation of a President Since 1974

[Mr. Barone is senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and co-author of"The Almanac of American Politics 2010" (National Journal).] ...Scott Brown's 52% victory over Ms. Coakley's 47%, in the state that in the last four presidential elections voted more Democratic than any other, is the harshest repudiation of a president since Democrat Richard Vander Veen won Gerald Ford's House seat in Michigan in 1974 by a 51%-44% margin.

That Democratic victory in the historical Republican heartland of Michigan signaled that Americans were repelled by the Watergate scandal and had had enough of Richard Nixon. He resigned from office six months later.

The Republican victory in the current Democratic heartland of Massachusetts sends the message that Americans are repelled by Barack Obama's big-government programs, backroom deals and oversolicitude for those who want to destroy us....
Read entire article at WSJ