Coakley?
CNN, and the rest of the pack, are saying Brown wins, but it would be more accurate in Massachusetts to say the National Democratic Party machine has once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Martha Coakley was looking great following the Democratic primary with a solid win, good enthusiasm, and an election in a liberal state. Then it all fell apart when the decision was made that instead of running for Senator from Massachusetts, she would run as the 60th vote for the Obama health insurance mess.
She got her major boost in the primary when she flatly opposed the Stupak amendment to the House version of the bill, and then, in the last days of the campaign, her big “thing” is promising to vote for the bill, regardless of what it contains in the end.
It is hard enough to crawl out from under the bus to vote, but then to be told that the person you thought was different, was going to be a real liberal, was just going to be another party apparatchik – not going to happen.
When this election became a referendum on the “health care reform” bill, Coakley lost.
10 comments
LOL I saw this on The Daily Show (01/18). Too funny!
If you haven’t seen it… I’d highly recommend it! Seriously! I’ll be PMSL for days!
Even though Stewart was in rare form, he was right I think. He gives the distinct impression of being… displeased… with Dem’s. Ahem. 😉
Skip past the part about Harry Reid (or at least don’t watch it if you’ve just eaten)! *sigh* *shaking head*
PS. I saw some footage of Coakley at engagements and on tour… Umm… Are you SURE she’s not actually GOP? She could almost be Palin’s sister or cousin, without the looks. Talk about foot-in-mouth! They even misspelled ‘Massachusetts’ on a banner and pamphlets!
I feel so bad for Teddy Kennedy! He must be screaming if he’s watching this from wherever his soul is. 🙁 What complete moron picked a Palin stand-in to replace someone like Ted and thought the people of Massachusetts would go for it? For crying out loud… she *lost* to a guy nobody’s ever heard of, who’s main pride appears to be his truck, and his claim to fame was a Cosmopolitan and Playgirl nude centerfold and his daughter was on Idol… Well, maybe this will be a wakeup for the Dem’s (but I seriously doubt it. Stupidity rules.) Loosing Massachusetts is akin to Howard loosing the very safe liberal seat of Bennelong (which hasn’t happened since 1929). You could see the writing on the wall when the Kennedy family were very careful not to endorse Coakley (and rightly so) or anyone else. If I were one of the Kennedy’s, I’d emigrate to the EU.
A-mazing. And very stupid!
Lanny Davis is blaming “the left” for the defeat. I think the DLC creeps had more of a hand…and then of course, the candidate herself not like to press the flesh with peeps and not knowing a Red Sox player from a pinstriped mugger from the north.
Geez.
Actually, Kryten, what you saw was Coakley trying to campaign on the program of the national party leadership, which is not what won her the primary, but she isn’t a great speaker. She won her current office, attorney general, in a state-wide election, so she knows how to do it, but not with someone else’s agenda.
So, she’s not a baseball fan, Jill, that’s noise level garbage. Trying to support the Obama program is what killed her chances.
I agree that Supporting the non-plans are partly responsible Bryan. I lived and worked in MA for GD in the 80’s, and MA is a place that doesn’t change a whole lot. In fact, they like things to stay the same, which I found endlessly ironic given that some of the most advanced science and engineering are done in MA! 🙂
I suspect you will find that people were disgusted that someone like Coakley was going to try to *fill the shoes* of someone that was truly beloved and admired in MA. Whoever the retarded *strategists* were, they should all resign. As far as many in MA are concerned, Brown is akin to a porn star. The fact that they preferred someone like him over any Democrat, is a titanic kick in the nutz. Of course, the Demecratic party, now being as ignorant, greedy and stupid as the GOP, won’t get it.
Understand, Kryten, it wasn’t that people changed their minds in Massachusetts, it was that progressives didn’t vote. Brown didn’t get much, if any, cross-over votes, it was that the progressives stayed home in disgust.
The Senate health care bill will make the already flawed system in MA even worse, so people were mad about that, and they were mad about all of the benefits going to corporations. Brown only slightly improved on the votes that McCain got in the Presidential campaign, so there was no huge shift to the Republicans – it was the reality that over 40% of the people who voted for Obama stayed home.
I didn’t see her support anything, really….she just kinda ran away from the campaign.
I’m in Florida, and you’re trying to keep your head above water in California. There are several people from Massachusetts at Corrente who were working on the campaign, and I’m getting the bulk of my impressions from them.
They say they knocked on the doors and made the calls, but people stayed home. They joined her campaign because of her stands in the primary, and the fact that she wasn’t the choice of the DNC. After securing the nomination, they said things changed. They soldiered on, but the messaging changed to reflect the DNC positions, which they personally didn’t like. They also mentioned that the local Dem leaders were not being helpful to the campaign, so there may have been local infighting going on as well as the national problem.
The reality is that Brown didn’t get anything but solid Republican turnout. The turnout wasn’t there for the Dems, and a number of Mass Dems already said they were tired of getting abused by the party in Washington.
Coakley beat a group of Democrats to win the nomination. If she’s is as bad at campaigning as people are trying to portray her now, how did she do that, and how did she win her job as the state’s attorney general? Putting the blame on Coakley doesn’t compute.
That’s my point Bryan. the Dem voters didn’t bother because they saw nothing worth voting for. Brown didn’t *win* anything. The Dem Party *LOST*.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see more GOP’s win seats. At least people know what to expect from them.
If the Dems don’t actually start to do something substantial about jobs and the economy, The Republicans may well control the White House and Congress in 2012. That is the curse of the two party system, especially when both parties are worthless.