…questions concerning a political race but if you are a Sicilian in the north end you fit in like a glove. Even a small(?) blogger can get some questions in.
Once Stacy and I got on the ground we separated a bit. I tended to notice the Italians who actually live in these narrow streets. They liked Brown and turned out for him but the crowd of outsiders, particularly the press, who had congregated in the neighborhood elicited the normal glances and comments in Italian among them that are the rule when any group of tourists/outsiders visit.
Rudy however got none of that, he fits in here like a native and was treated accordingly.
I spent all my time listening not so much to the speeches but watching the crowd and how it reacted. The crowd was friendly and excited tasting victory. They pressed to get close to the candidate and to get their questions in, Mr. Brown was very accommodating both at the Paul Revere statue and at the Fire Station. The highlight was during the walk to Cafe Vittoria where a woman who didn’t know was was going on handed Rudy a baby and took a picture of her son held by Rudy and Scott Brown together. Alas I do not have that picture but that is the photo of day.
I asked Rudy the same question that I asked Joe Malone, who once ran against Ted Kennedy for the Senate years ago. Can this be the start of a republican resurgence in Massachusetts? Rudy contended that Republicans had won before and can win again here. Joe said that the bend of the political cycle is producing a lot of interested parties to challenge democrats on the local level, which is how Tip O’Neill first flipped the statehouse in the 50’s.
For Stacy’s take on events check out here for today’s events and make sure you catch his coverage from yesterday here and here, he will be uploading the photos that I neglected to take.
More to come later, I have a son to pick up from school and then a former President to dog.
Update: This Brown ad has that photo of the day in it.
I am actually standing directly behind the cameraman during the entire “walk’, out of sight in the classic Sicilian way.
Update 2:Here is the Herald’s coverage of the Rally
Q: What does Martha Coakley have in common with the character Booster from the Christmas comedy Jingle All the Way?
Today in my travels with Stacy McCain I made it a point to ask people about the Senate Race, were they talking about it? Was it a topic of conversation?
As a rule the answer was people knew little about the race, but people did know who Martha Coakley was and NOBODY likes her. In fact not only did people not like her, teenagers who weren’t following the race only knew their parents didn’t like her.
I guess this might account for the lack of Democratic passion about the race in general, but lack of passion hasn’t been a problem among the pundits:
How much is Coakley disliked? Lets check Blue Mass Group a Democratic site:
Let’s get this out of the way. You might not want to vote for Martha Coakley. You might think she deserves what’s she’s getting after an absentee, self-satisfied campaign (why should I bail her out?). You likely want to send a message to everyone from the attorney general all the way to every Democratic official in Washington, DC. Odds are you didn’t vote for her in the primary. And, you might be wondering if it’ll make a difference who wins this Tuesday.
You got every reason to be pissed, but it needs to be clear: not voting for Coakley is the same as voting for Brown. And voting for Brown is a very, very bad thing.
sabutai :: Yes it sucks. Yes you have to vote Coakley.
and remember this is a site making the argument FOR voting for Martha.
Meanwhile at the other end Red Mass Group discovers that Martha Coakley seems to believe in a religious profiling for certain employment.
The SEIU et/al have gone heavily with cash and negative ads
The SEIU, a major backer of Coakley and health care overhaul, launched a $685,000 ad campaign featuring a negative spot that attempts to link Brown to the GOP’s former vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin.
Because nothing hurts a candidates’ popularity like being linked to a person whose autobiography has been on the NYT best seller list for months.
Meanwhile on the radio today ad after ad made the case that Brown is: wait for it: a Republican!
The negative ad were so pathetic that Michael Graham made a parody superior to the actual ads running:
Brown has actually finally retaliated with an ad highlighting Coakley’s trip to Washington to pick up lobbyist cash.
The most amazing thing about the ad? It doesn’t even mention the A & B that took place in front of the AG’s face.
Update: Why do people dislike Coakley? Big Journalism has two reasons up and counting
meanwhile SISU notes that those democrates seem to have found a candidate with a post titled:
Update 2: Apparently there are a million reasons a day why Brown should be encouraged.
One additional reason for him to be encouraged is this video in support of Coakley from the president. It contains all the passion and conviction of his promises to c-span. Can the president explain to me how voting a liberal democrat into a seat held by a liberal democrat since 1962 represents “change”?
With all the good news maybe the Lonely conservative will have to change his name?
Meanwhile back in November I tweaked Violet over this post:
Do I actually think Coakley could be a presidential candidate in 2012? Doesn’t matter. This is about capturing the mood of resistance to the Democratic anti-woman donkey-shit deal. Coakley is publicly denouncing the Stupak amendment. Send the message that she’s right.
I know she has been in pain (hope you are feeling better) but she never blogged about Martha’s flip flop on the subject. I’m still waiting to see what she has to say.
And if the news concerning the Brown/Coakley race doesn’t depress liberals these posts from Camp of the saints and Gormogons will. Money quotes:
What does this mean for Haiti? It means that America, on its own dime, while fighting two wars and in the middle of the Great Recession, is going to once again bail out Haiti. Our soldiers and Marines will risk their lives in abhorrent conditions to protect Haitian civilians. Our ships will provide free first-world medical care, clean water, electricity and food to thousands and ask nothing in return. And how can America do this?
America can do this, because despite the protest of dirty, nasty hippies, and the continued efforts of liberal Congrehttps://datechguy.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=9937&message=1sspeople to defund the military, we have the biggest, baddest military on the planet.
Oh and what a coincidence, Scott Brown is a member of that same Military, although he will be remaining in Massachusetts, but not to worry so will the UN envoy to Haiti:
Update 3: Speaking of Haiti the Anchoress continues her blogging of the disaster but still finds time to give voice to her thoughts on the Coakley campaign. They are much less charitable than her thoughts concerning Haiti.
So, there you have Martha Coakley: As nasty as Barbara Boxer; as stupid as Patty Murray. She’ll fit right in with the senate, if what we are looking for is “more of the same.”
The poll shows Brown, a state senator from Wrentham, besting Coakley, the state’s attorney general, by 50 percent to 46 percent, the first major survey to show Brown in the lead. Unenrolled long-shot Joseph L. Kennedy, an information technology executive with no relation to the famous family, gets 3 percent of the vote. Only 1 percent of voters were undecided.
I haven’t had this feeling in my stomach since after game 5 of the 2004 playoffs vs the Yankees, come to think of it Schilling made a big difference that year too.
Update 4: You know it’s really handy having an extra set of eyes around the house when you inadvertently leave strings in your post.
…but our Pursuit of Mr. Brown’s vehicle today was the first car chase I’ve been involved in.
I went to South station to pick up Robert Stacy for 11:15 this morning. Boston being Boston there was no place to park for less than $25 bucks so I simply circled south station until Robert Stacy came out and we were off to the Brown headquarters in Needham.
As I make it a rule never to take the pike if it can be avoided so it took a few extra minutes to get there, as we exited we talked to a nice lady who just finished at the phone banks and who walk out but the candidate himself with his guys.
He said Hello and RSM got a shot of him with somebody but he had to leave for his press conference…
…so not knowing the location we jumped into my car and thus began a semi-high speed chase which included at least one disrespected red lights, several cars to dodge and weave around and finished with a three point turn in the middle of a two way Boston street next to the state house at just after 1 p.m.
Bottom line is Stacy made it to the conference and his report will be up shortly is now up, I meanwhile still unwilling to spring for the 20+ bucks for park spent the conference listening to Rush and circling the surrounding blocks passing and re-passing the graves of James Otis, Sam Adams, Paul Revere and John Hancock the Gould monument and the statue of Joseph Hooker (why Joe Hooker rates a statue is beyond me).
From there it was back to the overcrowded Brown campaign headquarters and then Mighty Subs for a late breakfast/lunch (The REAL reason why Robert Stacy came, must be a fan of this blog) and off to my house were he is sitting across from me typing up a storm.
For the next several days I will be Kato to his Green Hornet or much more accurately Rochester to his Jack Benny. It should be an interesting week.
Update: I didn’t even mention briefly meeting the American Glob briefly after the press conference. he reports on it here.
…well not quite a stranger. Robert Stacy McCain is on his way up here and by the time this scheduled post goes up he should be just arriving in Boston via AmTrak. We will be bopping (does anyone say “bopping” anymore?) around the state a bit to see what we can see concerning the Brown campaign and he will likely be posting both from the road and from my house, likely with a Wachusett Country Ale in his hand as he does.
As my laptop battery is dead and I’m not inclined to buy a new one for a machine that is old and falling over my remote blogging might be limited but Robert Stacy will have the story so keep an eye over there for some first rate reporting.
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