MA Special Election – Instant Thoughts

Here are my initial, ill considered and unsubstantiated thoughts about yesterdays election.

The Bad:
Coakley was an abysmal candidate. Their is absolutely no excuse for the complacency that she showed. She may have received bad advice but that doesn’t matter, it was her candidacy. She now has to live with the consequences of her defeat and I suspect that won’t be pleasant.

Saying that, it is becoming apparent that Tim Keane is not an effective DNC Chair. Howard Dean had a definite plan for revitalizing the Democratic party and was an extremely effective organizer. The impression with Keane is one of drift.

Not many are saying this but I think that the media really does have to take a long hard look at itself. They are allowing fascism to flourish due to their insistence on covering everything as equal, a substantial well thought out position is given exactly the same weight as a wacko pulled out of someones rear end a minute before airtime. I am not talking about Fox News here – they are a known quantity and people make the required allowances, The networks and especially CNN are the big offenders.

That is it as far as blame goes, maybe a little for the Whitehouse, a missed phone call here and there but nothing systemic.

The Good

The Superbly wonderfully excellently Good:
Harry Reid has lost his cover. He can no longer play the game of not putting anything that may offend the Democratic party sponsors up for a vote on the grounds that he is a vote short. The 60 vote rule has really suited Reid, it meant that he could carry on more or less as he did on opposition. He will now have to send things for a vote which will at the very least get the GOP and Conservadems on record with some very unpopular votes.

One thing that Reid has slipped by the media and the public at large is that if a Senator knows no actual vote on an issue is going to be forthcoming he can say what he likes withour fear of reprisal. I still feel that if Reid had sent a strong healthcare reform bill up for a vote he would have got the votes. The likes of Bayh, Lincoln, Nelson et al wouldn’t have dared to vote against it as it would have been electoral suicide. While there ws no vote they could keep their paymasters happy and not piss off the voters. The only real joker in the pack was Leiberman as he had nothing to lose, his state loathed him and his chances of re-election were thin. Joe also bears a grudge and wouldn’t miss a chance to stiff the Democratic party in general and the Liberals in particular.

The normal good:
The Whitehouse must now realize that appeasing wingnuts doesn’t work on any level. Certain noises are coming from the administration indicating that this message is finally beginning to gain some traction. Obama has tried to take the moral high ground which is all good so now he get down and dirty and slap his opponents from both sides of the aisle around a bit.Make no mistake the forces for the status quo nominally on the Democrats side see this one coming and will resist. They will be out on the Sunday talk shows and cable news explaining how the Dems need to stay the course and not do anything rash. They need to be ignored, pilloried and treated with disdain – we cannot let these people turn the debate. Watch for Jim Webb to lead the charge. He sent a very strong signal last night, within minutes of the result becoming official.

Some Local Stuff
MA does have a better healthcare system than other parts of the US. Therefore this is probably where supporting health care reform wouldn’t have been a huge net positive. People do vote with their pocketbooks and telling residents of the state that they would have to pay taxes for something that they wouldn’t use was probably not the hardest sell in the world – whether it was actually true or not wouldn’t have mattered. I honestly believe that this alone accounts for the margin of victory by Scott. There is still no excuse for losing this seat though- the Dems should have been able to absorb that hit without breaking stride.

Final Thought:
There is no polite way to say this;a large chunk of the MA population is very very stupid. They have elected a proto fascist to power in Ted Kennedy’s old seat. I have long thought that it is the so called independents that pose the most danger to this country, not through design but through ignorance.