The People’s Seat
His words spoke volumes as he clearly and unequivocally stated his case for his candidacy. At the beginning of the campaign Brown must have been at least twenty-five points behind, but a funny thing happened. Brown confidently stuck to his guns, and campaigned as the Scott Brown we know — honest, straightforward,
and doggedly determined. His message was positive. He was who he was and it was time for change here in Massachusetts. He never blinked, he never wavered, and he never went off message. He was a latter-day Teddy Roosevelt leading the charge. He began gaining traction, his message began to catch on, and enthusiasm began to build. Over in the other camp Martha Coakley took on the deer-in-the-headlights persona coupled with an arrogance that kept her from rubbing elbows with the “hoi-polloi.” Asked by a reporter whether she was being too passive, she replied: “As opposed to standing outside Fenway Park? In the cold? Shaking hands?” She did not do well in the debates, she was stiff, wooden, and seemed devoid of any sparkle, any sense of humor, any fun. She is not the type of lass you’d invite out for a pizza and a few beers and expect to have a fun evening, and folks picked up on this. Then another funny thing happened. Brown began to gain in the polls and his candidacy began to catch fire. People began to get excited by leaps and by bounds. In talking to folks you heard the same thing over and over: I’m tired of this bunch; I don’t want another “business as usual” Democrat who will march in lockstep with the crowd down in Washington. It’s time for a change.
In the meantime, Coakley seemingly developed lockjaw and, like a child having a nightmare, closed her eyes and hoped all of this would go away. Well it didn’t; Scott kept gaining and Coakley panicked. She went negative, and the people saw through this and it hurt her. Then a series of dumb things happened: misspeaks, poor strategies, her bodyguard gets into a tussle with a reporter, and Martha found her campaign in disarray. Through all of this Brown continued to plow straight ahead, articulated his values, and worked around the clock. Coakley didn’t and therein lies the tale. Then a third funny thing happened. At exactly 9:17 pm on Tuesday, January 19 (election night, for you calendar-challenged types or those of you whose BlackBerrys are on the fritz) Martha Coakley conceded the election to Scott Brown. In this the bluest of blue states she lost by a 52% to 47% margin on a day where two million voters cast their ballots.
According to the commentators on television this is closely akin to the shot heard round the world. I’m not really sure of that but I will say this is one whale of a story, with the good guy winning, despite having the odds stacked heavily against him.
Observations In her concession remarks Coakley said she was defeated by fear and anger.
The Globe last week had Coakley up by 15 points, and on Tuesday afternoon put a map of Massachusetts on the newspaper’s web site with all the towns either blue or red projecting Coakley the winner by a 50-49% margin. They later took it down saying it was put up in error. This is another shameful exhibition by this outfit,who were so far in the tank for Coakley they totally abandoned any pretense at fair play.
The pollsters did a pretty good job predicting the outcome. Scott Brown got off another terrific line when he said, and I’m paraphrasing, “Regarding terrorists our tax money should be spent on weapons to protect us, not for lawyers to protect them.” Patrick Kennedy’s repeated references to “Marsha” Coakley really make one wonder about that lad. President Barack Obama couldn’t remember what state he was in when he began his remarks supporting Coakley. Obviously his mind was elsewhere. And Coakley’s staff couldn’t spell “Massachusetts” in one of the campaign’s television ads. Governor Deval Patrick must feel like the last pick in the NFL draft who is named Mr. Irrelevant. The Governor was MIA (missing in action, for you non-military types) for nearly all the campaign. With this being an election year for the governor do you suppose he has been calling the President inquiring about a federal judgeship? The state’s senior senator, John F. Kerry, was not much of a participant for the Attorney General’s cause either, in case you missed that fact. The best political coverage, to my mind anyway, for the past couple of months was Nightside with Dan Rea on WBZ radio AM 1030 from 8 to midnight weeknights.
Scott Brown’s family served him well in the campaign effort. Scott’s acceptance remarks were about twice as long as they needed to be. They dragged on a tad too long.
CNN chief Washington correspondent John King said on the radio Wednesday morning that ObamaCare is dead. It will be back to the drawing board.
Thinking about Scott becoming the hottest national political personality, the question now becomes do you think the inept bunglers who run the Republican Party will be able to avoid messing this situation up?
