Tomorrow's Election

[hyphenate]

Tomorrow, a friend and I will be going to the polls at 9 a.m. to vote. Since we're both devoted Dems, we will be voting for Martha Coakley and not Brown.

Right now, after receiving about 20 or so phone calls, about 50 emails, and god only knows how much paper mail, I've come to the conclusion that panic is not only the main thought on too many minds, but that most of us must vote in order to keep the wolves away from our doors.

How many times have I be so proud to point out that "our" Senators were the best Dems on the hill, both of them great progressives, and both of them truly representative of the great state of Massachusetts? But that, alas, is no longer the truth, and it might not be after tomorrow. But I know that Massachusetts IS the one state which rejected Richard Nixon, and that our Independence goes all the way back to the Revolutionary War, and some believe even farther. We are even proud that we are a "commonwealth" and not a "state" and that we have always had that streak of rebellion which has served us well.

But I think that same spirit might have hurt us in a degree, as the thought of a noxious and repugnant hooligan like Scott Brown taking over Ted Kennedy's seat is unforgivable. Ironic, too, that the man for whom Health Care for everyone was his greatest cause in the last years of his life, might have been the unwilling catalyst for giving the "enemy" a new seat in the most liberal part of these United States.

I know Boston, where I grew up and spent most of my life, and now Worcester will do all they can to elect a Democrat to the Senate, but I also know Springfield, where there is a strong conservativeness, and where they might try to turn the greatest liberal commonwealth to purple. Many of them have complained over and over again that those East of them don't represent them, and this is the only opportunity that they have had in an extraordinarily long time to put a more suitable (to them) politician in that second chair. We've seen what measures and means they are going to in order to secure it, and that has opened up many an eye to the size of the force using whatever means necessary to get it done.

I know that our "small" election is going to be an important one to the rest of the country. I know that it is being watched closely by a great many. And how it comes out will be crucial to what bills, amendments and other laws are passed from now on, even beyond the current administration. But one major thing must be noted and remembered: NO ONE outside of Massachusetts can vote tomorrow. Those of you who have a keen interest must defer to our judgement tomorrow when we walk into our polling booths and check off the Democrat's place on the voting form. Those of us who want to keep our state blue WILL do our part to try and make that happen, but we have, at times underestimated the reds and their often questionable means to make this country theirs in the past, and if they win tomorrow, which I pray they don't, it is a wake-up all to the rest of the country that even in Massachusetts, a Pug like Brown can win.

[Edwin Edwards Fan]

1. Voting

Unfortunately I live in Louisiana and can't vote. I will be pulling for Coakley.

[frazzled]

2. As a former Massachusetts voter, I know you're doing all you can

I know how organized and dedicated the party faithful are.

And many of us elsewhere are pitching in as best we can from afar. The OFA office here in Chicago was making a valiant attempt to hit the lists of last year's Obama voters to get out the vote for Coakley. But after talking to Taunton and Bellingham today, I feel a little depressed.

That said ... go out and vote your heads off.

In a bit, come back and help us here in Illinois, where we'll be having a special election to replace Barack Obama's seat. I am terrified we're going to be fending off Mark Kirk here like you guys are fending off Brown.