“I thought it was going to be me against the machine. I was wrong. It’s all of us against the machine,” Brown told rollicking supporters at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. “You have shown everyone now that you are the machine.”

Demoralized Democrats were left grappling with the notion of a once-obscure GOP insurgent snatching the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s seat in the so-called bluest state, only to possibly seal the demise of the late senator’s health-care dream - and single-handedly knock President Obama’s agenda off course

“I never thought I’d see the day when a Republican replaces Ted Kennedy,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino told the Herald last night. “I think Scott Brown caught the wave of anger that’s out there, and the wave of anti-Obama.”

A Rasmussen Reports poll found one in five Democrats supported Brown, who benefited from high suburban turnout to beat Coakley by 52 to 47 percent.

“There is a revolt going on in this country,” gushed GOP activist Bay Buchanan, a former adviser to Gov. Mitt Romney in his presidential bid. “Massachusetts will just inspire the patriot movement.”

U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, dean of the congressional delegation, vowed to pass the health-care bill despite Brown’s win. “As Sen. Kennedy would say, the cause endures, and the dream will never die,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank bluntly declared, “Martha Coakley was a lousy candidate. She let herself get involved in a personality debate.”

While Coakley furiously criss-crossed the state yesterday in a desperate bid to make up lost ground, Brown took out the trash and went to the post office - an election-day ritual, according to one aide.

“We never lost our focus or our determination and . . . you never demonstrated an ounce of complacency as far as I’m concerned,” a “heartbroken” Coakley told disappointed supporters.

The White House released a statement saying President Obama called Brown and “looks forward to working with him on the urgent economic challenges facing Massachusetts families.”

But earlier in the day, as Democratic finger-pointing began, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama was “surprised and frustrated” with Coakley’s predicament. “Not pleased,” he added.

Even Obama’s political Svengali, David Axelrod, gave props to Brown, saying, “As a practitioner in politics, my hat’s off to him.”

He added, “I think the White House did everything we were asked to do. Had we been asked earlier, we would have responded earlier. But we responded in a timely fashion when we were asked.”

At Brown’s victory party, his daughter, Ayla of “American Idol” fame, belted out “Dancing in the Street.”

“He’s run a good campaign and he’s made it clear that the ignorance in Washington has been rejected,” Romney said.