“On Friday he did a walk-about in Boston’s Little Italy, a Democrat stronghold. Asked how he felt about possibly winning the seat, he replied to loud cheers: ‘It’s not the Kennedys’ seat. It’s not the Democrats’ seat. It’s the people’s seat.’

“A number of women had brought along their dogs. Donna, a dentist, had brought her fox terrier Razzie. ‘I always voted for Kennedy but this guy is refreshing,’ she said. ‘Washington has forgotten the middle class and he’s the way we can stop it.’…

“‘People who I never in a million years thought would have voted Republican are going to him,’ said Rhonda Serre, a mother of two who has lost her job but still supports the Democrats.”

***
“Democrats may outnumber Republicans by three to one in the state, but independent voters now outnumber them both: a majority of the state’s voters are no longer members of either party…

“‘It’s just tax, tax, tax, and I think the people are just getting sick of it,’ said Richard Gasparoni, 57, an independent who was holding up a Brown sign at another intersection here along Main Street. Mr. Gasparoni, who has lived here all his life and works as a tax manager for a medical device company, said that he had never campaigned for anyone before, but was moved to act because he was upset that the state had raised its sales tax, leery of the health bill in Congress, and fed up with the scandals that have engulfed several Democratic state lawmakers.

“‘I think people have had enough,’ he said.”

***
“‘I don’t know him — he may be a perfectly nice guy. I don’t know his record,’ Obama said at one point of Brown.

“He then repeatedly poked fun at the Republican’s signature vehicle.

“‘When you listen closely to what he’s been saying, it’s very clear that he’s going to do exactly the same thing in Washington. So look, forget he ads, everybody can run slick ads. Forget the truck. Everybody can buy a truck,’ Obama said.”

***
“The president may recall as well how much he used to talk about a new kind of politics – about campaigns based on conviction, instead of just false and small-minded negative ads. Well, as long as he’s paying a visit, he might want to talk to Martha about that. Not only are her ads negative, they are malicious. How quickly the politics of hope have become replaced by the politics of desperation. Shame on Martha.

“Before the president rushed to the scene, we saw my opponent standing with a former president, the governor, the senior senator, the appointed senator – the whole party establishment, right on down the line.

“At the beginning, it felt like me against the machine. But guess what? I was wrong. It’s us against the machine.”

***
Via the Right Scoop.