- Harbinger or happenstance? It’ll be curious to see how last night’s upset win by Kathy Hochul is received and interpreted by political media, and by the parties themselves. (We’ve already seen a bit of it from man of the hour Paul Ryan.) You may remember back when Scott Brown defeated Martha Coakley to become a Senator from Massachusetts, for example — his win in a traditionally Democratic stronghold was seen as an early signal the Democrats were in trouble in the 2010 mid-terms, a special election turned bellweather. With evidence now that Ryan’s Medicare plan is a huge political liability, will it cost the GOP in 2012? And should they be verbally flogging their only candidate who came out against it? source