From TPM Reader RD …
I’m a MA resident, registered voter and in fact vote in every election. And I have to say I’m really uninspired.
I think Coakley could well lose, and if she does, blame it on an “Obama Effect” — but not the ones that journalists will latch onto.
We know that if Brown wins, all the reporters will attribute it to some kind of shift to the right, and start the doom and gloom stories about it being a bad year for Dems.
But all politics is local, and the Dems in MA put forward an experienced but uninspiring establishment candidate in the wrong year for that. Coakley may be a terrific public servant. But this is a year when people increasingly expect to hear inspirational rhetoric from their politicians, and her speaking style is stilted, her rhetoric is strained, and her appeals to popularism (ie: anti-banker claims) just sound false. I want to like her, but when I see her speak I’m just left flat.
This is also a year when people want outsiders, non-establishment politicians. They want different ideas, not more of the same entrenched positions. And Brown’s ads show him driving around the state in a beat-up pickup truck, listening to people. Coakley comes across as about as establishment as you can get.
Dems are trying to get people out for the election by talking about legitimate policy differences. And I think it’s safe to say that Brown’s positions really do lie outside of the broad MA electorate’s preferences.
So if Brown wins, does that tell us that it was about left versus right? No, it’ll tell us it was about insider versus outsider, and new ideas versus tired ideas, and most of all empathy and “let’s get something done” versus issues-focus and resumes. If Brown wins, it won’t be an anti-Dem or anti-Obama backlash… it’ll be a sign that Coakley was about as anti-Obama a Dem candidate as you can come up with.
Even if the MSM doesn’t get this, I sure hope other Dem candidates figure it out.
