How did this guy win?

[IndianaGreen]

How did this guy win?

Scott Brown, a nearly unknown Republican a few weeks ago, won a comfortable victory over Democrats in the special election for U.S. senator in liberal Massachusetts.

January 20, 2010

IT WAS pretty clear that Martha Coakley's goose was cooked before the polls closed yesterday in the Massachusetts election to fill Ted Kennedy's seat in the U.S. Senate.

First, only the Democratic candidate's advisers were claiming that their "internal polls" showed Coakley ahead--most major public polls showed her losing to formerly unknown Republican Scott Brown by anywhere from five to nine percentage points. Second, her campaign announced a possible challenge to the results on the grounds of nebulous charges of voter fraud.

And third, Democrats--from the state level to the White House--started blaming each other for what happened. If nothing else, you knew these were signals of a campaign that thought it was going to lose.

And lose it did, with Brown--who vows to be the "41st vote" to uphold Republican filibusters to defeat health care reform legislation being considered in Congress--beating Coakley by a margin of 52 percent to 47 percent.

How, in a state that hadn't sent a Republican to the U.S. Senate since 1972, could a third-rate Republican state senator defeat the supposedly popular Democratic state attorney general? How could one of the "bluest" (most pro-Democratic) electorates in the country replace Ted Kennedy--who often called health care reform "the cause of my life"--with a conservative Republican whose main program is to defeat health care reform?

http://socialistworker.org/2010/01/20/how-did-this-guy-win

[geckosfeet]

1. The RNC saw the chance and came to his aid. The DNC has it's head up it's collective butt.

[FreakinDJ]

2. Isn't Socialist Worker.org a shill site sponsored by FUX

[IndianaGreen]

3. What we got here is the Pavlovian response to the word 'socialist'

which is a good indicator that our educational system has succeeded once again in producing obedient consumers with a knee jerk reaction to anything that smacks of socialism. whether it is or not.

[FreakinDJ]

7. Ya - Pretty much considering all the Pure Bull stories they publish

but don't let that stop ya

[IndianaGreen]

11. You got any links or evidence to back your claims, or do you just have pigs flying out of your ass

[rpannier]

4. He didn't win

She lost

She ran an anemic campaign, that at times appeared to be one that felt she was entitled to the seat because she was a Democrat and it was Edward Kennedy's seat.

Brown ran an aggressive campaign. He went out to win votes.

His voting record is questionable, but she didn't seem to make any effort to define who Brown was early on.
As a result, he was able to define who he was/is.

Her arrogant comment about standing out in the cold at Fenway Park and shaking hands probably hurt her chances pretty badly.

For a veteran of politics, she ran an incredibly lousy campaign. She deserved to lose.

[Syntheto]

10. ...The Media didn't help by...

...declaring it 'Ted Kennedy's seat' that was a big mistake... Brown came back with the '...it's the people's seat'. That will become viral and historic.

[bemildred]

5. Kind of reminded me of Gore 2000 and Kerry 2004 and a number of others.

No offense intended to Mr Gore who I think was "mis-handled".

[clear eye]

8. You think that Gore & Kerry lost? n/t

[bemildred]

9. Define "lost".

They did not become President. They did not run good campaigns. Gore at least put up a fight for it. Kerry and Coakly both conceded prompty. In Coakley's case that seems to have been the right course, cause she did get her butt kicked.

[Goldstein1984]

6. I like to think that the progressives are sending a message

Our votes are no longer guaranteed;
We're tired of the lesser of two evils;
Not sucking as much as the other party isn't enough for us anymore;
We expect change, and here's a little sample of the change you can expect if we don't get it;
The slow, steady, within-the-system change that never really accomplishes anything isn't enough;
The Democratic Party may be shifting steadily to the Right, but we are not.

I like to think that is the message because it's the one I'm going to be sending with my votes.

[emilyg]

12. +1

[Oldenuff]

14. Exactly!!!

Well said.

The voters are sending a message...loud and clear..plain and simple...we've had enough of this sh*t.

[boomerbust]

13. Lets see

He got more votes than she did. People need to get over it and move on for fucks sake.

[caraher]

15. I sure hope nobody in the Coakley camp is saying "voter fraud"

That's a RW BS term. The correct term would be "election fraud" if the issue is pre-filled forms, voting machine tampering, etc.

[rpannier]

17. After watching their campaign

The only fraud was her saying she was 'running' for the office

[caraher]

18. More like "strolling" for office?

Whatever you call any funny business with ballots, it's not why she lost. The loss of the seat was bad politics, pure and simple.

[barb162]

16. The economy, joblessness, people get mad at the incumbent party,

and 200 other things. Makes no difference who caused the bad stuff; blame it on the incumbents.