Massachusetts Senator-elect Scott Brown is thinking beyond the Bay State, dishing out provocative talk that his win wasn’t a referendum on Barack Obama's presidency. "It's bigger than that," said the modest Brown, who apparently is eying a run for the White House in 2012.

And why not?

Obama served in the Illinois State House in Springfield before being moving to Washington for a cup of coffee in the Senate before running for the big job. Scott is following Barack’s footsteps.

Look for the former Massachusetts State Senator to serve some time on Capitol Hill before challenging Obama as the pride and joy of the Tea Partiers. It’s going to be quite a showdown.

Brown’s crushing of dullsville Martha Coakley has cable pundits trashing Obama's first year in office. They should take a breath. Other than his reckless surge in Afghanistan (Obama, to his credit, warned America during his campaign that he was going to make Afghanistan Ground Zero in his war against the bad guys), the President has a pretty good run.

The Economist, hardly a left-wing rag, gives Obama a slap on the back for his first year in the Oval Office. From its January 16 editorial:
"In his first 12 months in office Mr. Obama has overseen the stabilizing of the economy, is on the point of bringing affordable healthcare to virtually every American citizen, has ended the era of torture, is robustly prosecuting the war in Afghanistan while gradually disengaging from Iraq; and perhaps more precious than any of these, he has cleared away much of the cloud of hatred and fear through which so much of the world saw the U.S. during George Bush’s Presidency."

The non-partisan Congressional Quarterly is on the same page as the Economist. It rated Obama the most effective President in the last 50 years. Obama enjoys a nearly 97 percent success rate in getting passed bills that he supported. That’s better than LBJ, who was considered a Master of the Senate

The Economist urges Obama to “get tough,” rightly chided the President for acting too cool and above the political fray. Final passage of the healthcare bill is a great place to start. Obama needs to get the Democrats in the House to sign on to the not-so-perfect bill that narrowly passed the Senate. He needs to fight on behalf of the more than 30M Americans who will gain coverage under the Senate bill.

It’s now or never for the President. Obama and the Dems should do healthcare and then move quickly to jobs, jobs, jobs. If health reform goes down in flames, Obama and the Democrats will surely follow.

(Image: macr.org)