Editor's Note:Tuesday’s American Morning viewers zeroed in on today’s Massachusetts’ election to fill the senate seat held by former Senator Ted Kennedy. Independents were said to play a critical role in the election’s outcome, as many former Democrats, disenchanted by President Obama, were moving to the right of the political spectrum. Others believed that abandoning the Democrats at this time was akin to being “traitors to the poor and working class people.”
- Ginspelts: As a former moderate democrat who got fed up with the bail outs, a 800 billion stimulus bill that did absolutely nothing to help with jobs or the economy and a crappy 2000 page healthcare bill that I do not know a whole lot about except all the wheeling, dealing & sweetheart deals behind close doors to special interest groups and the unions, and the ever mounting debt that our country is in; I can only hope that Scott Brown wins today. Maybe that is the kick in the teeth moment that the democrats in congress need to stop being so arrogant and hateful to the voters and start listening to the voters instead of putting them down and ignoring them. They completely lost me as a democrat in their party. I now considered myself a Independent
- Susan: If the independents vote for Brown because they are not pleased the way Obama is doing things and let health care fail, these people that do this are idiots and traitors to the poor and working class people. Obama is doing a great job for the situation were in. He is not God. Those that are disappointed in Obama should not put him on a pedestal. He is only a man working very hard to continue to bring back America the way it was. He has only been in there a year. If the independents vote for Brown they are letting the American people down. Brown has done nothing for no body and he is a tea bagger who is full of hate and they want him to take Teddy's seat. They are crazy. I don't think America will ever forgive them. Also, the democrats have to get out in groves today. Supporting Coakley for this Seat in Congress. Let's not give up now we have come to far for getting health care. We have some real idiots out there. Mr. Centerfold(Brown) would be a disaster. He has already said he would vote down health care. Now, for the independents to go ahead and vote for him would be just plain stupid!!!
- Joan: Jim Acosta's report on the race in Massachusetts today was disappointing because he is usually fair. He definitely slanted the report positively for Brown and showed negative aspects of the Coakley campaign. There were lots of negative issues in the Brown campaign but as the Republicans like to do, they gloss over that and attack the other candidate. If Mass. votes in Brown and he derails the health care plan, then those voters have a lot on their shoulders. They will be setting health care reform back for years and years and your country will continue to have one of the most one-sided, unfair systems in the industrialized world. Your system is geared for the wealthy and big companies and to heck with the poor little guys who can't afford it. What a shame. I'm not sure that you all realize that a lot of countries around the world are watching to see how your country responds to the health care crises and hope that your moral conscience comes through. Everyone is understandably upset about the horrible circumstances in Haiti and people need health care. You have people suffering in your own country without healthcare but try to cover that up. It seems kind of hypocritical.
The Massachusetts’ senate seat is critical in order for the Democrats to hold power in the Senate. What is your desired outcome of this election? Would having less Democratic power actually drive the senators to work together better, or would such a loss endanger any chance of health care and other reform that exists on the president’s agenda?
As aid relief slowly trickles into Haiti, many were displeased to see the “looters” singled out for desperation: “I challenge anyone to be totally focused on the rule of law when you have not eaten in 5 days!”
- James: It is unfair to focus on looters and not on the law-a-biding citizens of the poorest country in the western hemisphere. I challenge anyone to be totally focused on the rule of law when you have not eaten in 5 days! Why has it taken so long to provide the basics?
- Keith: "Looting"....You reporters need to stop using that term right now ! When you have to live over 6 days in total darkness, with no food, water, or place to wash your face or use the toilet , you should be able to survive by any means necessary. Why would you want these "items" to sit in a destroyed building while HUMAN BEINGS sit outside of them and parish? Have you no compassion, understanding ,humility? At what point does your reporting stop sensationalizing tragedies? Did you manage to get footage of you eating and drinking while these poor Haitians sit outside your living quarters and die?
How do you feel about the “looters” in Haiti? Should such acts of desperation be ignored, or is keeping a civil society critical in such circumstances? How do you feel about the shop owners who were vandalized or robbed? Does such desperation excuse the behavior? Should these shop owners be given reparations for the damage?