Posts Tagged ‘scott brown’

England takes note of a New Revolution in Massachusetts

Posted: January 17, 2010 by datechguy in elections, opinion/news
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Today the Times has has this to say about the race here on our side of the pond:

“Kennedy was a good friend of the lobstermen,” explained Feeney. “He would help whenever we had a problem. I just think the Democrats have forgotten the working man.”

The lobstermen are not the only ones jumping ship. The latest polls show the Republicans ahead in America’s most liberal state. The party has not won a Senate seat here for 37 years. The Democrats are so worried about losing the seat that Obama is flying in tomorrow, despite the crisis in Haiti.

To lose Kennedy’s seat would be a humiliating end to Obama’s first year in power, particularly as Kennedy was one of the first senior Democrats to endorse him for president. Not only would it be an ominous sign for the mid-term elections later this year but it would lose the Democrats their supermajority in the Senate, robbing them of their ability to sidestep Republican filibusters, and derail healthcare reform.

How come those British reporters have no trouble finding these guys in a crowd?

Update: I checked the Irish times, no stories but the Irish Independent did have an attack ad against Brown running in its top banner. I wonder if they have an ad buy in “Massachusettes” too?

Blue Mass Group proving Rush right

Posted: January 17, 2010 by datechguy in elections, internet/free speech, opinion/news
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Rush Limbaugh Friday:

It’s just not believable that he was only asked to go up there today. And when Gibbs says, “We’re not on the ballot,” that’s almost throwing her under the bus. But look out for the Boston Globe and a late hit piece on Monday.

Well it’s not quite Monday but here it comes.

To rational people this is not much of an anything, but to a media and a White House desperate for that vote and an Obama success, this is the card.

This afternoon it starts on the blogs, in time for it to be used on the Sunday morning shows. Then the President comes to the city and references it, and the Globe has two front page stories ready made. Blue man Group’s and the President’s reference.

However this will fail for two reasons:

1. The sheer volume of negative ads and over the top moves will put this into the entire pile.

2. As per my last post I suspect the reason the voters are not with Coakley is a good chunk of that 69% that voted Kennedy were voting the name and the clout, not the beliefs.

Without the Kennedy name and clout Martha Coakley is just another ultra liberal who thinks she is above the rest of us. That is no longer going to fly.

“I can’t believe that you’re going to give away Ted’s seat”

Posted: January 16, 2010 by datechguy in elections, local stuff, opinion/news
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So said one of two Martha Coakley supporters drowning in a sea of 500 Scott Brown fans in the center of Middleborough Massachusetts at the last stop of an all day Bus Tour.

The lady, a visitor from Florida up for a triple christening (congratulations!) joined her sister-in-law, a local grade school teacher who went down to see what kind of numbers Brown was drawing. They were amazed and frustrated at what they saw.

They had reason to be frustrated. The long silence of independents and republicans was over as Everett Square was filled with a crowd that dwarfed the Attorney General’s Worcester Rally yesterday. The presence of Lt. Governor Tim Murray, Springfield Congressman Richard Neil, Worcester’s congressman Jim McGovern and even the former President of the United States Bill Clinton was inadequate by comparison to the drawing power of Scott Brown in his campaign bus.

The large but well behaved crowd were there for the republican candidate. People like Robert Baylr from Lakeville came with his wife and son to see the candidate who he considered in touch with his views. Arlene Polivnen Liked Brown (and graciously gave me a pen when mine was nowhere to be found). Her Husband was vocal in both his disdain for the Late Ted Kennedy and the current administration at the state and federal level.

However in a state where only 38 months ago Ted Kennedy took 69% of the vote, the support of republicans and independents who were part of the 31% that opposed him in that election would not be enough to take Brown over the top. What the campaign needs to win are voters from that 69% that would be voting the other way.

The first evidence of this came from a server from the Hideaway restaurant taking a break to watch the spectacle. He expressed disinterest in this and all elections but noted that customers who were previously supportive of Coakley had been turned off by her repeated gaffes and negative ads and now supported Brown.

As hearsay evidence is not admissible I looked for further evidence. I found some from Brown volunteers who had shared his bus through Quincy, Plymouth and particularly Hyannis home of the Kennedy compound where according to them, the crowd consisted of over 1000 people in Ted’s own home town.

Ah but these were Brown partisans telling me this, could it be that they were padding the numbers for a person reporting who was not there? After all our Coakley supporting school teacher considered Brown a fraud who would support the rich bankers big bonus’. He wasn’t driving any truck, a “campaign run by driving” you can quote me, said her visitor.

So could I find that elusive voter in the crowd who voted for Kennedy in 2006 but was a Brown supporter in 2010? The guy holding a Democrats for Brown sign alas admitted he had never voted for Kennedy, I figured my quest was over …

…then I met Valerie LaCasse of Acushnet

She and her husband were were forever canceling out each others votes but Ted Kennedy and his legacy was gone and now Martha Coakley stood asking for her support. Although she had supported her for Attorney General she had never warmed to her as a Senate candidate. She resented the time off Coakley took after the primary.

With the Kennedy name before her she had never dived deeply into the issues, voting for the man who did so much for her state, now with her disappointment growing with the president she voted for just 14 months ago she decided to look deeper into the issues and found for the first time she and her husband were on the same side.

Our teacher shared her disappointment with Coakley, saying she had preferred Mike Capuano but was ready to hold her nose and vote for her but it may just be that without the clout and name of Kennedy that willingness can’t be taken for granted in the electorate anymore.

Update: Looking at my writing I think I might have massacred Robert’s last name in this post. If I have let me apologize right now.

Update 2: Stacy has video up. That “Holy Crap” is a direct quote.

Update 3: Welcome Hot air readers, Check out my coverage of the Senate race that I’ve done in conjunction with Robert Stacy McCain at his blog and the American Spectator blog. And if you are Electioned out there are always the Amazon Reviews and some classic literary re-writes and Tucker and co, if you are reading this; my $800 a week offer still stands!

One thing I’ve noticed about covering events first hand is…

Posted: January 16, 2010 by datechguy in elections, oddities
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…that you really don’t get to follow other events and posts well in the process. You are too busy getting to the events, finding out stuff, composing posts in your head, and trying to get your stuff up in a timely manner to think about what might be cool on the net. I haven’t even had a chance to look at Robert Stacy’s video he shot at the North End Brown Rally or his Worcester coverage.

Oddly enough the Washington times reporter in the background on Stacy’s first film filed her report on the Clinton Rally from my dining room table last night.

It’s an interesting but odd life that these reporter types lead.

Personally I think the action at events involves not so much the event as the people around it. Just watching people’s reactions and keeping your ears open in a crowded hall or a busy street.

For example at the Bill Clinton event in Worcester at the end while I waited for my son to attempt to get the president autograph (in vain) I stood quietly next to some much better dressed men from the Coakley Campaign who were apparently talking to Union guys from out of state. The gist was that the “Cavalry was coming” and they talked with the quiet confidence of gamblers who know which boxer is going to take a dive.

In my two days of travels and week of asking ordinary people about the race, that was the only thing I have seen and heard that suggests anything positive for Attorney General Martha Coakley chances.

After hearing that I couldn’t help but think about yet another passage from Tip O’Neill’s autobiography Man of the House:

…Several years later, Joe Conners, the election commissioner, confirmed my suspicions. He told me that they were sitting around at five in the morning, counting the ballots. “Curley was licked,” said Joe, “and we couldn’t let that happen. So we transposed the figures.”

“What the hell,” Curley had said. “They’re not going to protest it. It would mean a big fight, and that would hurt the party. They can’t afford to raise a stink.”

He was right. The next day, we were all set to go before the Ballot Law Commission and demand a recount. But before we could register a protest, Paul Deer, our candidate for governor, came to see me. “Listen,” he said “the party is already in bad shape. If we who people we’re a bunch of thieves, it will destroy us. In the name of party unity, please drop the fight.”

It was his answer to that request that began his path to the Speakership of the Massachusetts House and the long national career that followed.

Could something like that happen this time? Well it isn’t 1948 and the net changes a lot of things, quite a few eyes out there. I’m sure attorney general Martha Coakley would not be privy to any such thing…

…and anyway this is an election for a Federal Office so I’m sure that US attorney general Eric Holder would give the case the same diligence that he has given other election irregularity cases.

Update: These guys aren’t just whistling dixie:

1948 anyone? via instapundit.

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