Massachusettes

posted at 12:16 am on January 17, 2010 by Steven Den Beste
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Having been a Republican in Massachusetts, I have been increasingly amused, and bemused, by the Senate race going on there right now.

How will it come out? I don’t have the slightest idea. But the idea that the voters of Massachusetts might elect a Republican to replace Teddy Kennedy tickles my funny bone, not to mention my schadenfreude bone.

If Brown wins, it’s going to have consequences far out of proportion to the nominal meaning (i.e. picking 1 senator out of 100). The Democrats will try to blame Coakley, pointing out that she’s run just about the worst campaign it is possible to run. Which is true. And that Brown has been a brilliant campaigner. Which is also true.

But there’s more to it than that. Registered Democrats outnumber Registered Republicans by 3:1 in that state. It’s a blue a state as exists in this nation. In 1972, Nixon won 49 states. Massachusetts went for McGovern.

And now we’re in the midst of what some, at least, have called the “Permanent Democratic Majority”. And yet it now seems that there’s a fighting chance that Massachusetts — Massachusetts, for God’s sake — might elect a Republican to replace the last of the Kennedy’s.

Even if Coakley did run a piss-poor campaign, and commit more gaffe’s in the last week than Biden does in a typical afternoon, she still should have had an easy win. This isn’t just about her.

If Brown wins, it has to be considered a referendum on Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and the legislative program they’ve been trying to get passed. And it’s going to put the fear of God — or at least the fear of voters — into the hearts of every Democratic Senator and Representative who doesn’t come from a bluer-than-blue district.

It’s not just that Brown will represent the 41st vote in a filibuster. It’s that nervous Dems will start looking for an “exit strategy” that doesn’t involve them exiting their elective office next autumn.

Obama is going all in. In three bi-elections so far Obama has campaigned and the candidates he favored all lost. If he campaigns for Coakley and she loses anyway, and that’s a distinct possibility, then he’s dead meat. The first editorial obituaries for his administration will start appearing Wednesday morning.

Still, I’m trying not to get my hopes up. This is Massachusetts, where the Angel of Death could run for office as a Democrat and get elected. Not even the legendary “dead girl or live boy” could make a difference there.

Dissing Fenway Park, however? Maybe that’s a different matter.

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