"Who lost Massachusetts or "Seems like old times in Demland"

[bklyncowgirl]

I've been away awhile. The past year I've sort of taken a break from obsessing about politics. Oh I went to a town hall meeting or two and argued with right wing ideologues and of course I voted in the NJ Governor's election but the compulsion to vent online has sort of left me. Now, I'm back.

So who lost the seemingly unloseable Senate seat in seemingly liberal Massachusetts? There are plenty of suspects to go around.

Martha Coakley and her campaign team: What was this woman thinking? I mean seriously. She and her team were like a jockey riding down the stretch in the lead who starts waving and high fiving the crowd before his horse hits the wire and totally misses the little 50-1 shot who comes flying past them on the rail. Here's your opponent out hustling, shaking hands in the cold while you snicker with you well heeled friends about him standing outside at a hockey game at Fenway Park. EARTH TO MARTHA! That's how you win freakin' elections, you go where the voters are, you shake hands, you ask them for their vote. And by the way, it doesn't hurt to bone up a bit on local sports history. You can bet your polling budget that Hillary Clinton did a thorough study of every major sports team in New York both past and present so she could swap stories with voters about their favorites. Curt Schilling a Yankee fan--give me a break.

Barak Obama and his White House Brain Trust: Whatever happened to the Barak Obama team which ran the 2008 Presidential campaign? Have they been replaced by cyborgs? I want my real Obama back. The guy I voted for ran a campaign which never took anything for granted. The guy I voted for wouldn't have handed his signature health care reform bill over to the likes of Joe Lieberman. The guy I voted for wouldn't have let Raum Emmanual cut backroom deals with big pharma. The guy I voted for was supposed to slap some sense into those high rollers on Wall Street who've been gambling with my money. The guy I voted for....well maybe the guy I voted for was an illusion when it came to actual policy, that was to be expected--but at least the guy I voted for knew how to win elections. The guy I voted for knew how to fight. This is politics. You snooze you lose.

The DNC and the DSCC: Hello, is anybody home? Has Bob Menendez ever darkened the door of the DSCC? I had my differences with Chuck Schumer but at least he was visibly trying to do the job of electing Democrats to the Senate. Menendez doesn't seem to be doing much of anything except cutting sweetheart deals on behalf of NJ based pharmaceutical corporations. As for the DNC, has anyone seen Tim Kaine? Seriously, I'm starting to worry. Maybe we should put his face on a milk carton? Once again, compared to his predecessor, this guy's a complete and total dud. Does anyone actually think that Howard Dean would have sat there and watch a Democratic senatorial candidate let a freakin' 20 point lead evaporate without letting out a scream that would echo from Washington DC to Boston? Oh, but Dean is just so, so, not one of the cool guys, and besides, Raum doesn't like him. Sometimes I think that establishment Democrats hate dean because by winning the House, the Senate and then the Presidency he put them in the terribly uncomfortable position of having to actually, like, do something.

Harry & Nancy and the Democrats in Congress: Can any of you explain what's in this freakin' health care bill in a way that the average voter can understand. I thought not. Martha Coakley was a lousy candidate but you guys didn't give her much to work with. On the other hand you gave Scott Brown and his teabaggers a ton of ammunition. EARTH TO HARRY. No one except maybe people who live in Nebraska like the idea of you making the rest of the country pay for Nebraska's future Medicare increases in order to get the vote of Ben Nelson.

Pissed Off Progressives: Look, I understand where you're coming from. I'm one of you. You hate, hate, hate what's going on. You feel used, betrayed, pissed on and now you're pissed off. You worked, you donated, you blogged and for THIS! So you take out your anger at the Democrats in the only way our system allows you to do. You vote for the other bum even though you don't agree with a thing he stands for--or you don't vote. YOU ARE SENDING A MESSAGE. I know I almost did it myself. I stood there in the voting booth looking at the button that said John Corzine and my hand kept moving over to the Libertarian guy who's name now escapes me--I mean the Sierra Club endorsed him--how bad could he be. In the end I held my nose, voted for Corzine, went home and took a shower. I didn't send a message but I came close.

So it's sort of like the old Murder on the Orient Express, They're all guilty. Now let's see if the Democrats can pull themselves out of the circular firing squad and get back on track. This is all starting to sound too much like old times for my taste.

[HereSince1628]

1. How could it be the progressives?

We are regularly told we are a fringe minority and that our leftwing message doesn't resonate with America.

[bklyncowgirl]

2. Voters are the least to blame here--after all we don't have many options.

[mdmc]

3. thanks for posting

[chelsea0011]

4. There is way too much thinking about why Coakley lost. It is quite simple.

Brown carried the burbs including most of the affluent suburbs...and these towns turned out to vote. In 27 towns in which 70% or more turned out to vote, Brown carried 20 of them. Boston had under 50% turnout and some cities were under 40%. Democrats can't win if people don't show up in the cities. The media can spin it till the cows come home, but if the base stays home, you lose.