The Democrats strong-hold is beginning to weaken as Republican Scott Brown wins the Massachusetts Senate seat.

The Senate seat once occupied by Edward Kennedy before his untimely death last August has been won by Republican Scott Brown in a surprise victory over his democratic opponent.

According to reports, Brown won by a majority vote of 67% to 43%, despite confidence on the side of the Democrats that the seat was a guaranteed safe win, ruining their chances of a 60-seat majority in the Senate.

In November the Democrats lost two other seats in the states of Virginia and New Jersey.

Before the ballot closed on Tuesday (19 January), Ms Coakley’s campaign manager Kevin Conroy posted on her website that the team had received various independent reports that voters across Massachusetts had received ballots already marked in favour of her Republican rival.

Scott Brown said on his victory “Every day I hold this office I will give all that is in me to serve you well and make you proud.”

He proclaimed defiantly “This is the people’s seat.”

Meanwhile Ms Coakley said although she was “heartbroken at the result” she respected the decision of the voters.

Mr Brown said that the voters he had spoken to were all avidly against the healthcare plan proposed by Obama’s government, a scheme which he says is being forced on the American people.

This news will add fuel to the already burning fire as President Obama’s popularity in the US begins to wan. His Healthcare Bill, one of his domestic priorities in the States, has been met with widespread criticism, with the Republicans arguing it would lead to higher taxes and the government meddling in healthcare decisions.

It begs the question just how good is the American leader? He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, despite having been in office for less than nine months for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy”, which roused mixed reactions.

Last week when the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) made the decision to move the minute hand back on the Doomsday Clock it cited one of the reasons as the “change in the US governments orientation toward international affairs brought about in part by the election of Obama.”

However, Obama needs to prove himself to the American public, which so far has been left relatively alone with international relations a priority. His charisma alone will not win his colleagues seats, nor will it create a better world for the American people who voted him in.