On the one year anniversary of President Barack Obama’s election, Democrats aren’t feeling as great about things as they probably hoped:

In a stunning upset, Republican Scott Brown, a little-known state senator just weeks ago, Tuesday trounced Democrat Martha Coakley to win a Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat and jolt Washington’s Democratic leaders with a victory that imperils President Barack Obama’s agenda, led by his bid to overhaul the nation’s health care system.

Brown, 50, mobilized voters in one of the nation’s most Democratic states — voters frustrated by the sluggish economy, angry about big government and uneasy about changes in health care. He led Coakley, 56, who conceded defeat shortly before 10 P.M., by 52 to 47 percent with 99 percent of precincts reporting.

With his victory, the first time since 1972 that a Republican has won a Massachusetts Senate race, Brown will take the “Kennedy seat” occupied by Sen. Edward Kennedy for 47 years before his death in August and once held by John F. Kennedy before he became president in 1961.

What went wrong?  Most agree Coakley ran a simply awful campaign, and the Republican base was much more energized. This is definitely a wake up call to President Obama and Congressional Democrats to start delivering if they don’t want to to risk losing control this November.

The irony cannot be lost that Senator Kennedy, who long championed health care reform, was replaced by a Republican who opposes it and will deny Senate Democrats the 60 votes needed for its passage. But all hope is not lost:

To their credit, Washington Democrats haven’t given up. The White House is weighing a plan to pass the Senate bill immediately through the House, which would, with Obama’s signature, make it law automatically without Scott Brown or anyone else in the Senate getting another crack at it. Then the Democrats would use “reconciliation” budget rules to fix problems in the Senate version with 51 votes, per the agreement Obama has been working on for the last couple of weeks. This is a messy approach but doable.

Indeed, this will require holding moderate Democrats who fear they will suffer the same fate as Coakley if they support health care reform, while convincing House liberals to go along with the Senate version of the bill with the promise of improving it later.

If I were them, I’d do it. The Senate bill is far from perfect but still better than nothing. And its problems can be fixed through separate legislation. Let’s pass this thing and move on.