(This posting was written January 20, 2010.)

It’s hard to overstate the significance and irony of Scott Brown’s victory. Exactly one year after Obama appeared to be Goliath, Brown appears to be David.

On this day last year Obama was inaugurated president of the United States, and seemingly king of the world. A year later – after he has spent $3.5 trillion, more than any other first-year president – Obama’s star has fallen and Brown is poised to extinguish it.

The health-care and cap and trade bills – as fashioned by Obama and the Democrats – are dead. Brown, a conservative, breaks the filibuster-proof Senate. It’s not that conservatives oppose health-care reform – Brown voted for the Massachusetts version of it. It’s that they oppose the Democrats’ idea of reform, which is to decimate health care as we know it and rebuild it via the federal government. The majority of voters in Massachusetts and across the country reject this, which is why Brown won.

How are Obama, Pelosi and Reid reacting to Brown’s win? Reports are they reject the rejection, and intend to double down with their agenda. Arrogant. Tone deaf. Self-destructive. First the New Jersey and Virginia elections, now Brown’s landslide, and the Democrats still don’t get it? They’ve gone too far, misread last year’s Obama “mandate,” and are hurtling toward mass Democratic defeats this fall.

As for Brown, here’s a “regular guy” who campaigned in his old truck and was an obscure state senator just a few weeks ago. He persevered, vowed to be the 41st vote against Obamacare, struck a chord with the voters in blue Massachusetts, and symbolized the grandeur of this democracy: Against great odds, he won. His debate performance was a rout, especially one coup de grace line: Asked if he would be so bold as to vote against the health-care bill if he occupied health-care monomaniac “Ted Kennedy’s seat,” Brown answered: “It’s not the Kennedy seat, it’s not the Democrat seat, it’s the people’s seat.” Game over.