If you're a Dem or a progressive and don't like Coakley,

[pnwmom]

don't forget this is only a temporary position. If you want to help Obama with the rest of his agenda, hold your nose and vote for her.

Then start working for a better candidate to run against her for the Democratic slot in the general election.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. She would not be my first choice, nor my 5th choice, but she is leagues ahead of any repuke

[Maru Kitteh]

2. Good advice. We need those 60 votes not just for HCR but upcoming SCOTUS appointments.

And other things as well.

[DJ13]

3. If she wins she becomes entrenched and almost impossible to vote out

Big money will move behind her in a reelection, and Mass loses an opportunity to have the kind of traditional liberal they've enjoyed for decades with Teddy.

How many times have we been told that trying to oust the Blue Dogs will be virtually impossible due to the financial support they have from their corporate buddies?

[pnwmom]

5. By your reasoning, if Brown wins HE becomes entrenched.

Hold your nose, please, and vote for the one who stinks less.

[DJ13]

7. No, Brown would be easier to beat

The Mass voters will tire of being represented by a right winger long before his first term is over.

It would be easier to replace a right winger with a real liberal later on than trying to primary a corporate Dem if she wins now.

The "we need 60 votes" excuse is bullcrap, we dont have but 58 Dems in the Senate now (and Lieberman cant be counted on anymore).

[pnwmom]

11. Dream on. n/t

[DJ13]

19. Your original premise was "vote for her now, then get rid of her later"

And Im telling you thats ill advised because she wont be easy to get rid of later.

[pnwmom]

21. And so would Brown, who would be much worse. The media there loves him;

they'll help him win the next round.

[DJ13]

28. I think its sad that Ted's seat will belong to a corporate candidate no matter who wins

Its the ultimate insult to his legacy.

[Arkana]

41. Martha Coakley is no Blue Dog.

[MannyGoldstein]

4. The Problem Is *Precisely* The Rest Of Obama's Agenda

As far as I can tell (based on what's happened since he took office), that agenda includes my carcass roasted on an open spit, being picked at by bankers and other sordid members of the Predator Class.

[pnwmom]

6. Then think about Supreme Court appointments and getting them through Congress. n/t

[MannyGoldstein]

26. Don't SCOTUS Nominees Only Need 51 Votes? nt

[FBaggins]

35. Not since we gave them political cover to filibuster them. n/t

[HughMoran]

16. We can only hope

:rofl:

Touché :)

[izquierdista]

8. If you have to hold your nose

for every "Democrat" that comes along, when do you get a chance to breathe? :shrug:

[pnwmom]

12. When you're not standing in the voting booth. n/t

[Jennicut]

14. Primary her in 2012. Two years of Coakley or two years of Brown.

I know what I would choose.

[timeforpeace]

9. No Mass voters who are on DU are going to vote for Brown.

[pnwmom]

13. Some are encouraging others not to vote. n/t

[HughMoran]

18. One is

...but the post was deleted, obviously, so it can't be proven that any will vote for Brown, but if you've read a lot of threads here lately, you know there are many who are at least discouraging Mass voters from voting for Coakley.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. “Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, you may cherish the sweetest reflection

“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." John Quincy Adams

[pnwmom]

15. That really worked for the 95,000 Nader voters in Florida who watched the

Supreme Court install Bush in an election with a final margin of less than 500 votes.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

25. The votes of the left are available to candidates...if they earn them.

But, "not as bad" doesn't cut it.

[louis c]

29. learn your math

700,000 votes for the rep.
600,000 votes for the dem
150,000 votes for an indy or stay-at-home lefties.

result. Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Gingrich

Nice going.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

30. So, blame the candidates who were unable to convince the left to vote for them.

Or, unwilling.

[paulsby]

31. learn your history

nixon won by a frigging landslide.

[louis c]

34. Not in 1968. Nixon by seven tenths of a point

I not only know my history, I lived it.

I'll accept your apology.

link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1968

[paulsby]

38. you are right

i was wrong. for some reason, i was THINKING reagan when i saw nixon (not too long ago, somebody claimed reagan won by a hair and i corrected them).

apology given.

when you're wrong, you are wrong. and man, was i wrong.!

[louis c]

40. you are thinking of the second terms

even though reagan won comfortably in 1980, the rift created by the kennedy candidacy in a bruising primary took its toll. just as the reagan primary undid ford in 1976. it's tough for an incumbent president to withstand a grueling primary before a general. Johnson, Ford and Carter all lost when seriously challenged from their own party.

Nixon and Reagan won landslide second terms (1972 and 1984). Both carrying 49 states.

[Arkana]

42. Worked out well for ol' JQ Adams, didn't it?

Four years of what was perhaps the most miserable Presidency anyone except MAYBE Franklin Pierce suffered as the Jacksonians destroyed him and his legislative agenda, ran a Bush in '04-style campaign against him in 1828, and routed him out of office.

[TomCADem]

17. What About Supporting Coakley On The Issues? Here Is Where They Stand.

Here is a dicussion of where the candidates stand on the issues, and Brown's mandate on issues like abortion, torture, gay rights, and health care.

http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles/2010/01/17/opinion/6761250.txt

Our choice of Coakley may be surprising to some. Her major opponent is state Sen. Scott Brown, R-Wrentham, a local figure we have endorsed in the past for state Senate, and he is supported by a minority on our editorial board.

There's much to be said for endorsing a local candidate. However, we have an insurmountable problem. To paraphrase words Brown applied to his Democratic opponent, "he's a nice man, but he's wrong on all the issues."

Brown initially took a militant stand against gay marriage, which we have consistently supported. While he has softened his position some, his outlook on equal rights in a private matter remains worrisome.

After voicing support in this space for health care reform, we can't very well back Brown when he is promising to submarine national health care on his own as "the 41st Republican senator." We are left instead to wonder how he sees himself as a fitting successor to Sen. Edward Kennedy, who made health care reform a signature issue, while planning to spoil the best chance for reform the nation has ever had. Senate candidate Martha Coakley waits for the start of a taped debate at the WBZ-TV studios in Boston. Coakley is running to fill the seat vacated by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, but is crafting a campaign largely free of the Kennedy mystique. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File) After making our view plain that the United States does better not to lower itself to the level of nations who use torture in pursuit of information, we cannot endorse Brown when he issues statements that water boarding is not torture and should be employed by our nation.

We have no doubts about Brown's patriotism and commend him for his three decades of service in the National Guard and rank as a lieutenant colonel in the Judge Advocate General Corps. This, however, hardly translates into foreign policy expertise. The thin skin he has shown at times, notably at a King Philip Regional High School assembly, would be a handicap in the Senate chambers. He may have a desirably harder line than Coakley on fiscal issues, but his extreme positions on choice, gender, and other social questions are out of step for our pluralistic society.

Coakley is pro-health care reform, with qualifications regarding abortion amendments. Her jobs and economy platform is well-thought-out and detailed, while Brown hangs his hat on a return to free enterprise. She is firmly committed to same-sex marriage rights.

Coakley has established herself as a leader. Her work on the foreclosure crisis in Massachusetts is evidence that she is ready to serve the people's interests while dealing with the big players in Washington.

She deserves your vote on Tuesday.

The third candidate in the special election, Joseph L. Kennedy, is running on the Libertarian ticket. He is even more ardently opposed to health care reform than Brown. Kennedy is not ready for prime time and his Libertarian no-government-interference stance on the economy is a non-starter in Washington. He is given virtually zero chance of winning, but we are happy to see him in the face. Third parties' heads need to stay above water in Massachusetts in order to offer an alternative to Democrat and Republican platforms too often crafted to please their more extreme wings.

[pnwmom]

22. Thanks for the informative post. n/t

[wisteria]

20. She will help take us forward and help put Americans back to work.

Brown is only concerned about obstructing everything Obama for the Republicans so they can regain their power.

Remember, Republicans do not care about average Americans- they care only about regaining power.
My senator-Arlene Specter has said the Republicans decided when Obama was elected to do nothing but obstruct and vote against his agenda. He said all Republicans were told there would be sever consequences for anyone of them that did not stay lock step in line with the party line and that is why he left- because he is a moderate and they wanted him to be a hardliner.

As Obama said, a vote for Brown is like going backward- he will not help-he will hinder.

[alc]

23. and tell the dems that you won't ever care who they offer up

they will have your support. If you think she's an acceptable candidate, then vote for her. If not, write in who you think would be good. Nothing will change until people stop voting party and start voting candidate. If people vote party and she's the incumbent, she's there for good (or until a repub wins)

[sendero]

24. I have a real dilemma..

... because I want her to win, but I want HRC in its present incarnation to DIE.

[louis c]

27. The "General Election" in in 3 years

get with it. This is for all the marbles, and Cakley is all we've got. W have to work for her as though she was FDR. We're all in.

[TexasObserver]

32. Recommend

I've held my nose to vote so much, I hardly know any other way. And I'll keep doing it.

[1]

33. "hold your nose" again with the hold your nose. and then wait, again wait...

wait for what, einstein.

wait for what? exactly...

[Mari333]

36. and then there is this:

http://www.openleft.com/diary/16973/dems-inadvertently-signal-that-a-coakley-loss-would-strengthen-progressives-on-health-care

the details, the other side of the story

[Tailormyst]

37. Yup- I'm not so much voting for her as much as I am voting against Brown.

[graywarrior]

39. Therein lays her problem

I never liked her. But I'm working to get her elected. I'm now guessing that most other voters in MA will vote for the shiniest object and that ain't her.