Is the sturm and drang of the Coakley/Brown contest real or manufactured?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

[FarCenter]

1. Yes

[rockymountaindem]

2. 20% real, 80% manufactured

by people on TV who are paid to say what we all know anyway.

[CTyankee]

3. I asked the same question yesterday on a post. At that moment I thought it might

be a lot of BS. But I was a bit shaken when I heard that Obama changed his mind and is heading to MA on Sunday. That tells me that the WH has some serious polling data that indicates he'd better go. I'm sure Obama has a state of the art political polling expert who is reading the tea leaves and is worried...

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. Was the "going" pre-planned?

It just seems like a set piece.
I've lived this dream before.

[CTyankee]

7. Well, Gibbs said yesterday that he wasn't going.

Alluva sudden today he's going. I don't think Obama would spend time up there if he weren't genuinely concerned.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. I'll mark you down for "Real."

[FarCenter]

6. If Obama goes and Coakley still loses, it is a big problem for him

I doubt that it is worth the risk.

[frazzled]

12. Remember the Olympics?

I don't think he cares about risks. Even if it's a long shot, I think he does what he thinks might help, his own standing be damned. But it might not help.

[CTyankee]

13. The Olympics were different. This is a political issue for Obama.

His effectiveness as the head of his party will be continually questioned. He will be seen as a weaker leader. The Olympics didn't involve any of that.

[FarCenter]

16. This will be seen as a test of whether Obama has "coattails" for the 2010 election

If he can't pull Coakley through in MA, it is unlikely that he can significantly help Representatives and Senators in swing districts and states.

[CTyankee]

17. You are 100% correct! nt

[leftynyc]

11. Or

He could just be giving a big fuck you to brown who told him he better not come.

[CTyankee]

15. Do you really think that gnat would command Obama's attention?

Altho I like the fact that in a way Obama is essentially saying to that creep, "I'm the President and I can go to any goddamn state I want to."

POTUS really doesn't have any time to push back on pipsqueaks like Brown. He's got too damn much to do and worry about. One of them is health care. That's the reason, and the ONLY reason IMO, that he is going to MA.

[KittyWampus]

20. I do not think Obama would be going if she was close to losing. That's my cynic speaking

But I seriously doubt they'd be willing to take a hit.

[Wickerman]

5. It will be quite a victory when Obama brings home the win for Coakley

:think:

this is a good thing.

[CTyankee]

8. Oh, I don't think so. She should be out and out demolishing this guy.

But, OTOH, if he doesn't go and she loses, that's trouble...

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. It'll be a thing of beauty.

Cue Darrin Stephens

[chelsea0011]

14. I am up in Boston area and will speak of the TV media. They are

lazy and if a poll shows it close,the media will run with it. The TV media have cut all their investigative staff and rely on opinion people like Andy Hiller or Jon Keller to wet their pants about a horse race. Jon Keller is the absolute pits. Reminds me of beck without the crying. I mean Gail Huff from one of Boston's news stations is Browns wife and was never asked to take a leave of absence while the election plays out. Maria Shiver was removed from the national networks when Arnold ran for lowly governor. That's how much the news media here could care less.

[blm]

18. Your answer is THE answer, imo.

thank you

[tom_paine]

19. In an Empire where the deceptions of advertising, marketing and PR have wedged themselves into every

corner of our lives (which is and always has been the exact goal of Totalitarianism, from Classical Totalitarianism to the newfangled Inverted Totalitarianism of our Empire)

it is absolutely impossible to tell what is real and what is not.

We are very much in the position of the 1950s Russians. I'd say 1970s Russians but by then they had far less credulity than your average American Subject.