Martha Coakley lost. She got about 47% of the vote. She was a complacent candidate and it cost Obama and the Democrats dearly. I’m in a kind of pissed off mood about the whole thing, so I won’t try to think rationally about it tonight. There isn’t any positive spin to put on it, but it could work out for the best in the long run. You never know.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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In a word – disgusting.
Just as I said:
Coakley tried running her campaign by focusing on the Republican suburbs, and ignored the urban areas. Well, I guess you could say she didn’t campaign whatsoever for a good part of it since the primary.
Look at the results: Brown kicked her ass in those suburbs, and she’s only on par with the urban areas.
Cambridge and Boston is where she should have focused, not fucking Plymouth. Jesus christ…
I didn’t think someone could run a worse campaign than Creigh Deeds…
Nor did she have any notable online presence that has proven to be so useful in recent races.
Democrats are such fucking losers. Rather than accepting blame for being a horrible candidate, trying to enthuse people for 2010, Coakley blames the Obama administration for her loss.
She was 15 points ahead a week ago. yeah, I’m sure Obama had sooooo much to do with it.
pathetic…the demoRATs thought they could just mail this one in. how in hell do you blow a race like this in mass. of all places…[a rhetorical question].
Then I won`t answer.
Nice to see you though dada.
Definitely a blow job. Fail will be televised.
“Well, I guess you could say she didn’t campaign whatsoever for a good part of it since the primary.”
That’s all you need to say. She didn’t campaign for office, so she didn’t get elected to office. It’s really just. that. simple.
Pathetic.
You can count on Deval Patrick setting up active community organizations through out Boston, Metrowest, New Bedford , Fall River and the Worcester area. Deval know the key to winning is to have active organizations on the ground in these important areas. If he does this, and I think the Coakley loss should make it clear, he will win re-election.
One bright(ish) spot: among voters who like Obama, Coakley lost. It was about her.
Surely you don’t mean what it sounds like: that Obama supporters voted for the teabagger asshole? If so, they deserve what they’re gonna get, along with the rest of us.
Please see my diary title “What is really Fueling Voter Anger”. It was written an hour before the polls closed in Massachusetts.
On the bright side, Lieberman is now irrelevant.
Amen to that!
I’m so disgusted right now. I have no words. I’ll retire to Bedlam.
If Brown could come out of nowhere, use a style campaign and a populist message and win in Massachusetts, no incumbent can be said to be safe. And granted this was a special election for an open seat.
If I could suggest the incumbents whose loss would change the narrative, those would be Jim DeMint and Chuck Grassley.
I would also watch out to see if Brown has presidential ambitions; he could be the new media phenom. Bye, bye, Sarah Palin.
Yes. This. A million times over, this. NO ONE is safe. However, will Democrats get the message? That’s another story entirely. Clearly they didn’t when they nominated Coakley over Capuano.
There are actually 2 positives.
The Democrats have entered into the 50+1 terrain that the GOP mastered in their prior congresses.
On the downside unless the democrats start acting like they know how to play this game (ooh ooh wait ooh oooh – I make myself laugh sometimes), HCR is dead. Oh well, what’s another unaddressed cataclysmic disaster.
Master of the Senate…..uh boy.
Nobody’s gonna buy that the Reps are responsible. Unless the Dems go on a tear and end the filibuster and get shit done, they’re over. And so is the last chance this country had.
Oh wait there is a third positive. There is no longer a reason to have Lieberman or McCain or Senator Honeypants on the weekly BobbleFest every sunday.
was there ever?
The best thing – maybe the only good thing – to come out of this is that now, the Republicans have to bear some responsibility for what happens. No one can say the Democrats are entirely responsible.
There’s a small chance that might stem some bleeding at the mid-term elections later this year.
And there is still the chance health care could pass “as is.” It sucks, but it still has provisions that could dramatically help some people who have no options at all right now.
“The best thing – maybe the only good thing – to come out of this is that now, the Republicans have to bear some responsibility for what happens. No one can say the Democrats are entirely responsible.”
Exactly who is going to hold them responsible? They were not held responsible BY ANYBODY for the eight years of Bush, so I think it’s silly to believe they will be held responsible when there is a democratic POTUS and a democratic congress.
The republicans will never be held responsible for ANYTHING, EVER!
THe murders in this article;
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/01/hbc-90006368
when the republicans get control of the House, Obama will get blamed.
That’s the way our country rolls.
nalbar
Make a positive out of this mess or perish. Anything less than a failure of this magnitude wouldn’t have been enough to get this dysfunctional Democratic Congress to cut the crap.
Bad early sign: message discipline nonexistent when it’s most needed. This is one habit that has to be broken or we keep losing. That means you, Hoyer, Coakley, Feingold, Webb, and you too Weiner and White House. Zip it until you’re on the same page.
That means you, Hoyer, Coakley, Feingold, Webb, and you too Weiner and White House. Zip it until you’re on the same page.
Add Evan Bayh and Holy Joe to that mix. Face it. They’ll never all be on the same page. Will Rogers’ words ring just as true today.
You’re right, but a working Dem majority of 50 in the Senate and a slim majority in the House could work with Obama and exercise some message discipline. Not that it will happen, just that if survival depends on it, the chances increase.
My Senator is a fucking sell-out. Walk the plank and vote for this POS health bill, Webb:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0110/On_to_Plan_C.html
Jesus Christ. I, I’m like almost speechless, but then I remember which party I vote for unless it’s a local election…
Silly me. In my comments above I saw the positives in this situation.
But really we know what WILL happen.
Obama will reach out for bipartisanship.
Rahm will check everything with the lobbyists with the fattest check books.
Summers and Geithner will not be fired and still check everything with Wall Street.
Lieberman will stay as chair of homeless security oversight.
Reid will, shit he will just be Reid.
And Democrats will make believe they have a philosophy and a platform that they actually believe in – until it comes time to vote.
The reason there’s no way it can work out for the best is that there’s no further denying that elephant in the room: It ain’t Obama, it ain’t even the fake Dem legislators. The Democrat problem finally rests on the heads of asshole Democratic voters like the ones in MA that thought it would be cute to “send a message”. There is really nowhere to turn in this country. Our political “choice” boils down to evil assholes on the right and just plain assholes in the center (including the fake “left”). It’s hard to even decide which is worse anymore.
.
In Massachusetts are registered as Independents – 49%. Obama’s approval rating is 67% and 10 points higher than national average. The economy and jobs was leading in how people voted. The loss by the once-favored Democrat Martha Coakley in the Democratic stronghold was a stunning embarrassment …
The Democrats never had a 60 seat super majority! Time to strip Joe Lieberman of his chairmanships and reward the loyal Democrats. Never put yourself in a position to have to beg for support, it doesn’t provide clarity to the voter.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."We’ll be fine, we still have huge margins and lots of power, Budget Reconciliation here we come.
In ’91 a candidate came out of nowhere to win a Senate special election, one held after the death of a local legend.
Everyone said it was a bellwether, a game changer, a sign of a political sea-change, especially in the effort for health care reform.
The immortal Harris Wofford. Who lost to Rick Santorum two years later.
Josh Marshall says this will be Obama’s test as a leader and may well define his presidency — he will now be under tremendous pressure to abandon health care reform; Obama will either rise to the occasion and get health care through anyway, or he will allow the Congressional Democrats to run scared away from it.
care to hazard any bets on which path he chooses?
Oh dear. This is a disaster. I mean, a teabagger won kennedy’s seat. Wow. A fucking teabagger won one of the more liberal seats in the country. This is beyond just a shift, this has gone to just bizarre. Poor Senator Kennedy…he must be rolling in his grave.
How about the Dems try this:
1)Proceed with bills and things in normal order and get things ready for a vote.
2)Call for a cloture vote that won’t pass because the GOP will block it.
3)Repeat as many times as necessary until the election.
4)Spread a singular message of obstruction as part of the electoral narrative.
5)Reap the resulting backlash against the GOP.
6)At the start of the 2011-12 session, do away with the filibuster in its entirety with the 2010 GOP obstruction as the reason why. Pass legislation that meets the President’s goals repeatedly and often.
That calls for testicular fortitude. Remember the Republicans stopping the government? They had balls. Our “leaders” don’t. I learned this harsh lesson in the 1970’s when I worked in Washington. Taking an envelope-taking ballot-stuffing Alderman and turning him into a Congressman just makes him want bigger bribes. It doesn’t make him a statesman. The sight of Democratic Senators “morally” opposing the health care bill, but voting for cloture after getting a big enough bribe was sickening.
The Democratic Party is rotten to the core. The Republicans at least provide for their constituents. Tax breaks for the wealthy. Deregulation and subsidies for Wall Street. Abortion bans and school prayer for the religious. What do Democratic constituents get? Symbolism and more taxes to feed the same corporate whores.
Polls showed voters still liked early Medicare and drug imports. The polls also showed that people hated mandatory insurance and middle class taxes. So what did we get? And Democrats are stunned when people vote against them, even though they have been voting against the people.
Coakley wasn’t nearly as bad a candidate as she’s being painted.
Obama has lost the independent voters in this country. He lost them through his indecision and his constant compromise. Had he been a leader we’d still have Ted Kennedy’s seat. Obama is now a lame duck.
There seem to be a lot of reasons why Martha Coakley lost and most of them are not pretty.
Howard Dean said there was enough blame to go around for everyone who should have been involved in the campaign. He was right.
You can’t call it a perfect storm because it was not an act of nature. It was a manifestation of almost all of the issues with the Democratic Party acting as a system to thwart the success of a Democratic candidate.
I guess the GOP can now let go of Chappaquiddick; they have finally gotten their revenge. And the Democrats in the Senate who secretly never liked Kennedy’s policies can hang their “shiv of the year” awards in their Senate offices. Right, Joe? Ben? Kent? Mary? Blanche? Max?
It’s time for the Lawton Chiles of South Carolina to start walking the roads of that state and talking to voters. Brown used a pickup truck–200,000 miles and 66 events — to win. Democrats need to get out of the air campaigns and back into using shoe leather.
In high-profile, highly media-controlled areas, the one who looks most like a celebrity wins.
It’s been that way since JFK beat Nixon because JFK looked better on TV.
Ever since then…especially in presidential elections…the better looking candidate usually wins.
Think about it.
With the possible exceptions of Nixon + Jimmy Carter, that’s been the deciding factor.
Sorry, folks.
MEDIASTRIKE!!! for the entire country is the only solution to this problem, and it ain’t gonna happen.
Google it.
Over 1000 hits already.
More on the way.
Many more.
Watch.
The male Sarah Palin.
Only smarter.
Watch.
Brown/Palin
Now there’s a ticket!!!
A good hustler could sell that one!!!
I can hear Karl Rove licking his chops as we speak.
Didja see this?
Yup.
Like dat.
That’s the way it rolls in MediaAmerica.
Bet on it.
“You can’t buy branding like that.”
The very idea of “branding” is a media construct.
As is our whole political system today.
Wrinkly ol’ Harry Reid?
Hard-faced ol’ Pelosi bitch?
Why…just prop up some winking, fresh-faced Palin clone or an ex-Cosmo/Playgirl centerfold to run against ’em and it’s a done deal.
Bet on it.
And many of y’all mock my NEWSTRIKE/MEDIASTRIKE/CULTURESTRIKE ideas.
Hmmmm…
Got a better plan?
The only sure way to kick an addiction…and that is precisely what hypnomedia is, an addiction…is to go cold turkey.
Step away from the TV with your brains in the air.
Soon…you will bed able to tell the woods from the pretenders. And understand how the pretenders win.
Bet on that as well.
AG
P.S. Please check out my comment on Booman’s recent post Learning Lessons from Special Electionson as well.
Martha Coakley-The Massachusetts Caroline Kennedy
If yer gonna play the media game…fer chrissake don’t put up a candidate w/no fire in the belly.
Even if it’s totally false.
Variously attributed to George Burns, Groucho Marx, Sam Goldwyn, etc. True dat, no matter which show biz faker said it.
Yup.
Only…it can’t be done if no one’s watching the act.
First you gotta get the asses in the seats.
Then you can fool ’em.
Solution?
DO NOT ENTER THE THEATER!!!
Duh.
Yep. Bye, bye, Sarah Palin. The Republicans have found new blood. A country club Republican who sounds like Joe the Plumber. And yet is still Mitt-ified. And pals around with Curt Schilling.
Celebrity.
Good one, AG.
Brown/Cantor 2012 is the Republican ticket. Win or lose. And it can be rerun in 2016.
Eddie Cantor?
Isn’t he even older than John McCain?
And deader, too?
I mean…even conservatism must have its limits, right?
Oh.
You mean Eric Cantor.
Oh.
Nevermind.
Your friend,
Emily Litella
P.S. Saaaaay…they do look quite a bit alike.
Do they both do gay schtick, too?
I am so confused now!!!
No, you had it right:
Joe E. Brown and Eddie Cantor
Sounds about right to me.
Just as a data point, Black Box Voting issued a statement showing that Coakley won in places that counted ballots by hand.
I really oppose electronic voting without a hand count of the paper ballots as a check.