Brown is sweeping the country
If you study blogosphere and newspaper comments boards, it’s hard to escape the impression that an extraordinary number of people around the country seem to have heard of the Massachusetts special election because—unlike many such votes—this one feels like it matters to us all.
People are cheering Brown on in a populist, grassroots, “take back our country from the dread ultra-liberals who have hijacked it” way, and they’re putting their money where their mouths are. Over and over, I read the equivalent of: “Do it for [fill in state’s name]!” “Wish we had someone like him here in [fill in the state’s name]!” and “Can we clone this guy?”
You couldn’t write this script if you tried (or maybe you could, come to think of it). It would be deemed too unrealistic, too unlikely, and too pat, especially the Massachusetts angle.
The ironies and resonances abound. There’s the fact that this is only happening because of longtime liberal leader Ted Kennedy’s death, and that the health reform bill that could be jettisoned as a result was meant to be a monument to his life’s work. Another is that Brown wouldn’t even have had the chance to run if the Democrats of Massachusetts hadn’t tried to finesse things by changing the law time and again; otherwise Democrat Governor Deval Patrick could have appointed a senator to fill out Kennedy’s entire term and it would have been ho-hum news.
There’s also the little detail that Brown is one of the most personable and telegenic candidates ever, who seems to convey exactly the right tone and a good sense of what the country is looking to hear right now. As if that weren’t enough, the American Revolution (and the original Tea Party) began in Massachusetts, even though that long and proud tradition has been ground into the dirt by many decades of liberal hegemony.
The sense of unity among Brown supporters—of “we’re all in this together”—is both profound and encouraging. So maybe Obama (with a big assist from the Pelosi-Reid Congress) has kept his campaign promise and united America, after all.
This is true, Neo. I’ve Tivoed several news programs to get any info I can about this race. I’ve sent money twice and have encouraged friends to do likewise.
I’ve emailed the only three people I know in MA, one Harvard professor and two insurance execs, to urge them to vote for Brown (Good luck with the professor.)
If the “Brown vs. The Machine” idea resonates he just may do it. Talk about Hope & Change!
He has run a populist campaign. He stressed repeatedly he will be an independent voice, which makes him attractive to registered Independents and moderate Democrats.
Remember how Palin, DeMint, Huckabee, Thompson, Pawlenty and other nationally recognized conservatives very publicly endorsed Hoffman in the NY-23 race? It seems to me the Brown camp must have reached out to them and asked them not to publicly endorse hiim to avoid turning off the Independents and moderate Democrats that Brown whose votes he must get to win.
America loves an underdog, and by positioning himself as an independent and running postive feel good campaign ads opposite Coakley’s negative ads, it’s hard not to get behind the guy. It looks to me like he has run exactly the right kind of campaign for a Republican to win in a deep blue state like MA.
You know, right now my heart is happy. Maybe it will all come to naught, but I think we shall hear more of Scott Brown, no matter the outcome of this particular race.
It really does feel like “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.” If he wins it will feel like the final home run scene in “The Natural.”
If he wins, he’s going to run for President.
To add urgency to those wanting to see Brown win, to try to begin stopping the Obama & Co. assault on the Constitution, our Democracy, our Freedoms and Rights, I point to the truly ominous, subversive and illegal, covert, massive Internet propaganda campaign–truly worthy of the KGB, the Stasi or the Gestapo–that powerful Czar Cass Sunstein –often mentioned as a likely Obama appointee to the Supreme Court–advocated in an article he wrote just 18 months ago (see http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2010/01/15/sunstein)
I love it – LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT.
I donated 25. to him two weeks ago – in what I termed a futile gesture because that is all we had left. Then I gave 25. more on his bomb day. There must have been many hundreds of thousands of people like me, since he has raised $1m every day thius week I think.
I thought when people like you (Neo) and Sissy Willis were trumpeting this guy that it was an impossible case. But it goes to show you that maybe it isn’t. Maybe it wasn’t.
I don’t want to get my hopes up, but if this guy wins that will be HUGE and you should be very proud, either way, for being one of the few voices ‘crying in the wilderness’ and standing up while many of us wanted to just sit down. It’s a good lesson.
Suffulok University Poll shows Brown up by 4%. Pour it on!
You know that SEIU and others, including the Prez, are going to be out there this weekend.
http://bostonherald.com.nyud.net/news/politics/view/20100114brown-out_poll_shows_scott_brown_trumping_martha_coakley/srvc=home&position=0
Sorry to be off topic, but if you read the startling article about Sunstein’s proposals above, you will see the outline for the establishment of Obama and Co.’s Orwellian “Ministry of Truth,” justified–even though Sunstein knows the tactics he is proposing are unethical and would violate the law–by Sunstein’s belief that since the goal is so worthy, and those government agents would be acting “for the public good” and with the best of pure intentions, such violations of ethics and the law would be justified.
And how many other variants of “the ends justify the means” have we heard, from all sorts of Marxists, Socialists, revolutionaries and and totalitarians who have slaughtered hundreds of millions in the last century?
It looks like the Democrats have acknowledged how important this is to them, and how bad it would be for them if Coakley lost. They really are pulling out all the stops:
Bill Clinton campaigns for Coakley (thereby making an ass of himself)
President Obama campaigns for Coakley (thereby ensuring lame-duck status for him if she loses)
Sent him a small amount earlier this week, now that BHO is coming to town, I’ll just send along another donation to help counterbalance.
Sorry to be a one-issue commentator, but I just saw this on the Hugh Hewitt blog: it’s a clip from a radio interview with Coakley. She says that people whose conscience would preclude them from assisting in abortions should not work in emergency rooms.
This has very big implications regarding medicare funding for Catholic hospitals, which provide care for many, many people.
It’s a religious liberty issue.
http://www.hughhewitt.com/blog/g/9de6951f-99fc-48a1-b115-6cc8c24185c9
Thanks for discussing this Neo. I’m hoping the word gets out and people contribute. His victory would be a beacon of true “hope” for the country.
I just sent him $50.
I LOVE this guy! I will be the happiest woman in the US if he is elected on Tuesday!!
The latest poll on RealClearPolitics.com has Brown +15 over Coakley. It’s already a rout.
Amen…….”if that’s allowed” and not in the biblical sense!
Given the polls, I am absolutely amazed that Obama is taking the huge political risk of stumping for Brown on Sunday. Whether Brown wins or loses, Obama lays himself open to the charge of playing politics while the rest of the world is trying to save Haiti from collapsing into hell. And if Brown wins, as it’s beginning to seem that he might — will Obama have any political capital or credibility left at all? I can’t imagine what he and his advisers could possibly be thinking.
Mrs Whatsit: That’s what worries me. I wonder if the White House has new polling showing that Brown is slipping. Otherwise I can’t imagine what Obama’s doing this for.
Out here in SoCal, 3000 miles away, at baseball practice all anyone was talking about was Brown. That, and praying to God that he wins.
Looks like Obama, and everyone else, is going all in on this one. If Brown wins (please, God) Obama is done. Finished. Kaput. Zagrito. A lame-duck one year into his term. So his going to Massachusetts to campaign is worrisome, because it suggests he thinks she’ll win. Then again, he went to Copenhagen too, and came back with just his willie in his hand, so he’s obviously not too astute politically.
Mizpants: I thought that Obama would never go to Europe to get the Olympics without a clear road and assurances that it would happen. We all know how that turned out. They are desparate now.
Interesting title for the thread, which of course suggests “Love is Sweeping the Country” from Gershwin’s musical “Of Thee I Sing.”
Assistant Village Idiot had a posting several years ago connecting the Obama campaign’s resemblance to the campaign of that musical’s leading character, Julius Wintergreen, who successfully ran for President in the musical on a platform of Love. Thus the song “Love is Sweeping the Country.”
Carroll O’Connor played Wintergreen in a TV special of that musical in 1972, and showed that in addition to a talent for playing Archie Bunker, he also had a decent singing voice.
The grounds froze pretty hard in Massachusetts but the Dems are out this weekend digging up every voter they can find. Brown is slick. He demonstrated a lot by deftly handling a hostile moderator and returning the Kennedy seat back to the people, at least rhetorically. Brown is neck and neck in a race that the RNC logically wrote off as being a Dem gimme. Win or lose I don’t think he is going away from the national stage.
So his going to Massachusetts to campaign is worrisome, because it suggests he thinks she’ll win. Then again, he went to Copenhagen too, and came back with just his willie in his hand, so he’s obviously not too astute politically.
That’s right. I think many people on the left and the right “misoverestimate” Obama.
As I read his history, he’s been coasting with the wind at his back most of his life and has little experience with adversity.
Judging by the limp TV ad Obama phoned in for Coakley, I wouldn’t assume Obama’s going to whip up much enthusiasm in Boston.
Perhaps Obama believes it looks worse for him not to go to Massaschusetts, even if Coakley loses, given that healthcare likely hinges on that magic 60th Dem Senate seat.
i just sent another $100 to the Scott Brown senatorial campaign (for the fourth time) as my response to Obama’s planned visit to my beloved MA this Sunday. Even though I’ve been retired for three years, I figure that this is a good investment vs. the devastation we’ll all be experiencing with Obamacare and all the rest that the Democrat’s have in store for us (viz. his redistribution of wealth). Scott Brown is someone we can trust. He is one of us.
Steve G, the pollster who produced a +15 for Brown was a Republican, so it may as accurate as a ABCnews/WaPo poll.
An argument could be made that a defeat would have a positive impact on the Democratic Party, it would allow them an excuse to dump Obamacare over night and start repairing the damage while politely distancing themselves from the Obamessiah, ergo cutting their long term costs. By now they may be close to saying out loud what they are saying in private, i.e. @#$& Chicago amateur!
TEXTMartha Coakley Kept an Innocent Man Behind Bars TWO extra years – part one.
TEXTMartha Coakley Kept an Innocent Man Behind Bars TWO extra years – part two.
Massachusetts and Rhode Island politics are strange. In Riverside, RI (where my wife comes from), walking down any residential street you’d think you were in the reddest of red states. Flags, eagles, and other patriotic icons are everywhere.
Yet when I talk politics with my wife’s relatives (if I dare), it’s like Henry Cabot Lodge is still Senator from Massachusetts and that he is working with Senator Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island to repeal all the child labor laws.
The Catholic mill workers vs. the hard-faced Protestant mill owners is a narrative that still gets some traction among voters in New England.
However, when the Democrats start acting like the high-handed mill owners, that’s when the voters get angry.
I donated $25.00 to Scott Brown’s campaign last week.
It would be fantastic if he won and a wonderful come-uppance for the Democratic bosses in Massachusetts.
ooops sorry about that .. lets try that again
Martha Coakley Kept an Innocent Man Behind Bars TWO extra years – part one.
Martha Coakley Kept an Innocent Man Behind Bars TWO extra years – part two.
The votes heard ’round the world will be cast — NOV 19th 2010 in Massachusetts USA.
Will they be for Liberty or TyrannY?????
VOTE BROWN = VOTE FOR LIBERTY
People who think Obama wouldn’t go to Massachusetts unless he had some information that Coakley was polling ahead of Brown aren’t paying attention to his lousy political instincts (such genius as he has ever shown is almost entirely a result of his insight that the best way to win is to run unopposed, which he’s managed a time or two in Chicago, and his speechifying ability). His presidential campaign may have been a notable exception to this emergent rule, because it was pretty good, and in cases where it wasn’t (the foregoing of matching funds is one) he had media covering his backside for him. Maybe he has indestructible faith in his own magical powers. Bad candidate polling didn’t keep him from appearing in support of Creigh Deeds or John Corzine, and others have noted his failure with Chicago’s Olympic bid. I don’t know. I still go back and forth about the guy, thinking sometimes that he and the Dems are in the midst of mounting a coup and we’re going tohave to fight them, and other times that they’re building a house of cards that is about to collapse on them–and, partly at least, on us as well. Much will depend on the health care bill’s fate, which in turn may depend on what happens Tuesday in Massachusetts.
I don’t, however, agree that a Coakley defeat would have any positive impact on the Democrats. They have been busy showing themselves incapable of learning from experience, and they are clear that nothing will stop them from pursuit of their stupid and unpopular agenda in even a single particular.
Well, the reasoning for Dems’ benefiting from a Coakley defeat is that it would offer them (or force them to accept) a fait accompli to let go of ObamaCare without betraying their supporters.
If ObamaCare does go through, it will be such an outrage to the majority of voters such that they will not forget for a generation which party did it and the sleazy manner in which it was accomplished.
Democrats will be nailed to the ObamaCare cross. If Democrats had fun running against Bush and the Iraq War, it will be nothing compared to the advantage Republicans will enjoy. Republicans will be able to run against ObamaCare for the next decade and more after Obama is long gone.
Amen. In the biblical sense.
Your reasoning is sound, huxley, but may not be bear on this situation. It implicitly presupposes that Obama & Co. won’t continue to romance the canine for the rest of his term, something that’s unlikely.
More likely is that even if Obamacare goes the way of the carrier pigeon (are you listening, God?), he’ll screw up something else that will cover him in just as much stink. Look at his agenda: the KSM trial (an unforced error), Gitmo, Afghanistan, Iraq, cap’n’trade, illegal immigration – any one of those could easily blow up in his face, given his lousy political instincts and lack of rapport with the American people. In fact, I think that chance that he won’t step in the dog’s business on at least one of those is nil.
Overall, I think we’re much better off with Scott Brown winning. It’ll take the wind out of the Dems’ sails, destroy Obama’s rep as a miracle worker, and make every Dem politician start looking for a lifeboat.
Sorry, that should read “passenger pigeon” above.
My bad.
Does anyone else get a “Miracle on Ice” kind of vibe from this? America’s been down, we’ve been jerked around, we’ve been counted out, we’re faced with an apparently indomitable foe…and yet hope flickers, and threatens to erupt into a blaze.
Or is that just me?
As another left coaster – in a blue, blue city and county – I’m watching this race with keen interest and great (dare I use the word) hope that Mr. Brown wins.
Not so fast Occam, wait till Tuesday night, we’ll if the fight has been joined.
Then again I’m always the pessimist.
sorry I meant “we’ll SEE if the fight has been joined.
Occam’s Beard: A Brown win could prevent the Dems from suffering the negatives that will redound to them if ObamaCare goes through.
However, it won’t, as you point out, solve the Dems’ problems if they keep going hard left and behaving stupidly. Which I suspect they will until they lose their supermajorities or something horrible happens internationally.
And unfortunately 2010 is a good year for the latter. The bad guys have taken their measure of Obama and now they will start taking advantage.
Yes, Occam. It is as thick as the salt air here. People are furious about what is happening in Washington – Obama in particular – having given him a landslide victory here in November. I have many Republican friends that I was shocked to find out voted for him. I have bitten my tongue clean through a couple of times listening to them rave as if they had been bitten by the moonbats.
In my gut, I feel that the polls are actually behind the curve by about two weeks relative to the mood of people, especially those I have spoken to on the phone volunteering for Brown. You would not believe it. They are excited, enthused and motivated to support Scott.
I don’t think that in the end this race will be close, I really don’t, and the fact that Barry is flying up here Sunday will only agitate the masses even more.
“how many other variants of “the ends justify the means” have we heard, from all sorts of Marxists, Socialists, revolutionaries and and totalitarians who have slaughtered hundreds of millions in the last century?”
Glenn Beck is running an hour long special tomorrow @ 5pm EST on exactly this subject. It’s entitled “Che, Mao and Stalin” but includes info on the Nazi’s as well and was presented today as including info little known by the general public.
“Given the polls, I am absolutely amazed that Obama is taking the huge political risk of stumping for Brown on Sunday. “
I suspect that it’s a desperate move to save both ObamaCare and the party. The pressure on Obama must be enormous to do something, anything but look unconcerned. For once, the party has demanded Obama place his political capital on the line, for the party. As, for the democrat party in general, everything rests upon Coakley winning. They are belatedly recognizing that events have caught them with their pants dangling about their ankles.
Besides the tactical factor in Brown’s victory imperiling any ramming through of both ObamaCare and future legislation, such as the Universal Voter Registration bill, there is the devastating strategic psychological defeat this presents to the democrats.
This is Massachusetts and its symbolic importance cannot be overstated.
If Brown wins in Massachusetts, democratic Congressmen up for reelection in Nov. will sense the proverbial feeling of “someone walking over their grave”. Besides Brown destroying the super-majority, others such as Lieberman will lose their enthusiasm, he as well as others, will certainly read the ‘tea leaves’ of shifting political winds.
Brown’s victory means Obama, Reid and Pelosi will be faced with democrats and independents from conservative districts abandoning a sinking ship and the end of their ability to impose upon the American public their dreamed of “fundamental restructuring of America”.
It’s all going down the tubes and suddenly, even the dems can sense it. They’ve fundamentally misjudged what Obama’s victory was really all about and now, they are about to pay the price.
OB, the class of politicians, educators, corporate, cultural and religious leaders needs to be purged. Climategate suggests that science hasn’t escaped the rot. This is a straw in the wind. I believe the reckoning is almost at hand.
And yes, there are real leaders out there who will take their places. We don’t know their names yet; but we hardly knew Scott Brown three weeks ago.
huxley: I don’t think a Brown win would protect the Democrats.
First of all, they may squeak health care reform past despite him. They may do it before he is seated, for example. This would only exacerbate the rage against them.
In addition, even if health care reform is stopped, people will know it’s because of Brown’s election. And then there’s also the fact that the Democrats have frightened the American people by what they’ve done already. They’ve shown how corrupt and ruthless they are, and how little they care about the feedback they’re getting from their constituents.
I believe that people will remember this, and will feel we’ve dodged a bullet by Brown’s win. They will probably want to send more moderates or even conservatives to Congress in the future as a result.
Bob From Virginia, I didn’t mean it was in the bag. But I actually watched that “Miracle on Ice” match — in Boston, no less — and had the same feeling of disbelief slowly morphing into fragile hope and then into ecstasy. I’ve moved from disbelief into fragile hope at this point, and desperately hoping for ecstasy once again.
Absolutely right. The university from which I graduated is sending out bleating pleas for cash, along with glossy magazines redolent of indications of their Marxist bona fides. (You’d think either Che or Mao were the chancellors of the damned place.) In personal approaches to me, I apply reality therapy, and tell them “Bleed out, comrades, bleed out. Lance the boil that is academia, and let the pus ooze out.” They’re bleating about a 20% budget cut? I say cut the budget by 50%. Don’t cut back here and there — flame whole departments (to get around the tenure problem). Start with anything with “Studies” in its name.
One bright young thing called me soliciting funds for the chemistry department. I told her they should take the money from the Ethnic/Gender Grievances Department, which is an intellectual sandbox anyway. When she replied that the university couldn’t do that, I educated her by pointing that they could — and would — when the pain became severe enough. Cloward-Piven cuts both ways. Give me a clipboard and a sheaf of pink slips and I’ll have the university’s budget “in the pink,” as it were, in no time.
Climatology isn’t a science, anymore than economics or (a forteriori) sociology is. They’re science wannabes.
This evening the Democratic leadership is saying that, if Brown wins and they can’t delay seating him or get their 60 votes, they will ram the health care reform bill through by perverting the “reconciliation process”–really only meant to break legislative logjams, when the 13 normal appropriations bills do not pass on schedule–a process that only requires 51 votes for passage.
I might note the the Democrats have apparently suborned the Parliamentarians who rule on the legality of such actions, and who would have normally ruled that such a use of the reconciliation process–meant to apply to only the 13 major appropriations bills that fund the government–was illegitimate, and could not be employed.
This is. of course, is political suicide and will taint the Democrat’s brand for many election cycles to come, but the lemmings seem irresistibly drawn to the cliff.
I say again: buy stock in rope companies.
“If he wins, he’s going to run for President.”
HUSH! Don’t you know Democrat operatives check every blog?!?!? The will quarter him before he ever gets to the White House!
HUSH!
The Scott heard ’round the Word (Wide Web).
-um- World. (dang)
I think that O is going to Mass. because Brown told him not to and “no one” tells O what to do!!!!
Which may turn out to be the most cunning thing Mr. Brown has done.
If this Brown surge is about the people hating health care,who is its face?
OB,
Right. And companies that produce pitchforks. And tar. And feathers. And rails. And, um, other stuff.
Best to cover all bases, that’s what I say.
Neo, you forgot Brown’s Cosmo centerfold! If this race was a novel the editor would insist that bit be taken out as the last straw in unlikely plot elements.
An even more unlikely plot element is that no one is trying to make a big deal out of it. Since the Dems probably think anyone who would vote for Brown is a prudish fundamentalist conservative, I wonder why not. it is literally a non-issue, except that it makes his fans smile.
huxley: I don’t think a Brown win would protect the Democrats.
neo: Actually I presented the reasoning behind the argument as I understand it, not because I strongly believe it.
It does seem to me that a Brown win could force the Dems to pull back from ObamaCare and thereby reduce the amount of damage they will suffer from its passage, but they are hardly home, warm and dry if they do so.
No, the Democrats have spent far beyond their means — as well as the nation’s. There’s a mighty judgment coming for them no matter what they do.
I see where Barney Frank has made a Scott Brown campaign pledge: “If Scott Brown wins, it’ll kill the health bill.”
Far out, Barney. If that’s a promise, it will get Brown a lot of votes.
Occam’s Beard
Give me a clipboard and a sheaf of pink slips and I’ll have the university’s budget “in the pink,” as it were, in no time.
Get rid of the pinkos and CodePinkers and you will have the university budget “in the pink.”
Ah. You saved the best for last.
Yehudit,
Keith Olbermann has been trying to make something of the centerfold thing, to no effect.
It’s been out there for a while. People like the guys at HillBuzz.org brought it out early and publicized it heavy (political judo).
That hasn’t kept Olbermann from showing a picture of the centerfold whenever he talks about Brown. But nobody else is really biting.
The thing that scares me is the threat made Democrat machine should Brown win.
I am pretty sure that Olbermann is making a SERIOUS mistake in showing that centerfold whenever he talks about Brown. Half the voters in Massachusetts are women!
From all the comments I read here, it seems that Brown will win the race. If this materializes, I think it will devastate the Democrats. The health reform bill will come to naught and the Dems including Obama will have to learn that people are no longer on their side.
I think the growing national interest in the Brown/Coakley race is evidence that “the sleeping giant” is plenty ticked off indeed.
I only wish more of these folks had seen the implications of handing the dems a supermajority in last year’s elections. But hey, if they’re waking up now, better late than never.
It’s times like this that I love the internet. It’s a blast to be able to see that commercial in which Brown is working the streets of South Boston. He exudes sincerity and unlike Obama, he ain’t faking it.
I only wish I still lived in Boston and could cast an actual vote this week!
Re: the centerfold.
As the Hillbuzz guys like to say, “Great Merciful Zeus that is one fine looking man!”
😉
Ladies…LADIES…Calm your sweet selves.
My dream is that Scott hands her her head in a Win. Large enough to send an American Liberty loving message to the Leftturds and Democrat Slicks as a whole. Fear, in an Enemy, is GOOD.
NeoConScum, let the girls get the vapors for him. For once I don’t mind that. Whatever it takes to slow and/or stop the advance of socialism. Desperate times and all that.
Re: the centerfold. If some Liberal asks me about it, I point out that we need someone with balls in the Senate, and there’s the proof.