Monday, February 1, 2010

Julianne Malveaux: The Loss in Massachusetts is Not What You Think

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley was a lousy candidate who ran a lousy campaign and lost her bid for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat as a result. Instead of preserving 60 filibuster-proof votes for Democrats, she handed the Massachusetts senatorial seat to Republican Scott Brown on a silver platter. And, as they are entitled to, Republicans are celebrating, dubbing the extremely conservative Mr. Brown as "41" and suggesting that his election signals a Republican resurgence.

Too many will see this as the waning of President Obama's influence, but that's not necessarily the case. Martha Coakley ran a lousy campaign. While Scott Brown was retail politics, she was wholesale. While he was "the people's candidate", out shaking hands and exuding personality, she was uptight and uncommunicative. It probably ought not matter, but in sports-obsessed Boston she described a Red Socks pitcher as a Yankee fan, exhibiting not only ignorance of sports, but also of her base. She disdained hand shaking and was good for a series of bloopers, which she later described as "jokes". She is so out of touch that in a post-election interview, she said she would not have done anything differently!

Click to read.

1 comment:

  1. I agree! I got a sense that Coakley was dead boring. I wish that one of the Kennedy's would have run for the seat to keep the legacy alive. I hope Ted Kennedy is not turning over in his grave.
    Pamela Payne Foster, author of "Is there a balm in Black America?" www.ppaynefoster.com

    ReplyDelete