| Martha Coakley, should she manage to pull this off, needs to do some serious soul searching about the strategy she employed from the day she announced. The reason I doubt that she will is because if she pulls it off that means she won and the worst, most lacklustre, most generic, blah, unmotivated campaign will have scored a victory and victors tend to congratulate themselves on their brilliance.
She took the fact that her statewide job as our AG gave her statewide name recognition and she capitalized on a significant amount of women pushing her toward the goal line.
I cannot emphasize enough how the bitter taste of Hillary Clinton's defeat to Barack Obama felt to many women here.
Let's be honest:she has run the most defensive - meaning protect the lead campaign I have ever witnessed. As someone who is passionate about politics that attitude always bothers me. I have seen too many elections - hello Al Gore?!! - stumble along when you know the candidate is better than that.
I supported Mike Capuano in the primary and I do not regret that choice.
Martha, Martha, Martha.....after winning the primary didn't you think you would have to change a little bit strategically to take on the aggressive loon who is Scott Brown?
I know, I know, that the holidays interrupted the election season( it sucks......pay attention NH!!!!!!! Stop moving your primary dates FYI) but signs? No where visible in my town or region .
Signs are, and would have been an unobtrusive way to get support visible without bugging everyone with ads over the holidays. I have heard from no-one( our Town Committee was divided congenially over the race but some who supported Coakley should have stepped up and taken a leadership role in getting signs out there don't you think?
It hasn't happened.
Her issues are mostly aligned to where I stand... I can support her on that.
What she is dealing with on a lower level is many people's dissatisfaction with the present health care bill.
People are informed.
They know the public option was stripped from the bill, that there is very little cost containment in the Senate version as opposed to the House bill and that the President is right in the middle of it all in forcing the Senate version upon us.
There is disillusionment out here and to not acknowledge it does all of us Democrats a disservice.
Barack Obama announced that he was a 'New Democrat' when what most of us, I suggest, need and want a FDRstyle Democrat.
What's a New Democrat?
A DLC style pro Wall St, less Main St, Democrat.....someone who would have voted to repeal Glass Steagal. Someone who thinks the less regulation the better.
I suggest that many informed, intelligent, engaged people recognized fundamentally that Franklin Roosevelt had it right and that it was time to dust off some pointers from HIM and retune them for fittings for the 21st century.
Barack Obama and Rahm Emmanuel don't see it that way and now we are witnessing a HUGE drop in support of Obama himself and his health care bill in Massachusetts:
2008 election: Obama 62 percent, McCain 36 percent
PPP says Massachusetts voters are split with 44 percent approving of Obama's performance while 43 percent disapprove and 13 percent are undecided. Forty-seven percent oppose Obama on health care reform while 41 percent support him, with 12 percent undecided.
Martha Coakley has to deal with that reality.
It's like a perfect storm for her.
Next we have the candidacy of Scott Brown.
He is without a doubt doing what Republicans traditionally do after a defeat:move further rightward.
Since the modern day GOP was so far right as to be on the edge the 2010 version has joined the teabaggers and is in the process of jumping of the cliff in a vain attempt to find some more rightward ground to cover.
He's in your face for torture - the Constitution And the Geneva Convention be damned.
He is uninformed about the Senate health bill and repeats patent lies about it (really don't have to, I think it is bad enough without lies),he regurgitates that maxim about Republicans: 'the answer is tax cuts what's the question?' showing his ignorance blatantly when it comes to both recent history as well as basic economics. He is just a caricature of a GOP pol.
But I will say this~
He knows how to campaign on a basic level and reach out for this job.
Martha has finally launched what amounts to an ad defining the real Scott Brown.....some people will consider it negative.....it's not negative....his stances are defined and the positions he holds are anathema to voters.
I hope it's not too late.
She was ok last night( she could have been better, she appeared restrained especially over the health care tax.....what a disaster that is for us as a Party).
Brown?
Thanks for showing us what an edgy loon you are.
The Civil War within the Democratic Party will be a topic for a future diary.
The DLC, New Democrat way forward is the road to electoral defeat. It certainly does not equal change. |
