The next Martha Coakley?

Maybe Coakley would have pulled off a win had she run a better campaign, but it’s clear in hindsight that the Massachusetts race was always going to be competitive. Voters live in the present tense and their anxiety level is now off the charts; in ’10, this will be channeled against the ruling Democrats, even in blue states.

This should make Gillibrand very nervous. If Brown, an unknown quantity to Massachusetts voters until days before the election, could engineer a win in the Bay State, then it means the GOP doesn’t need a Giuliani or Pataki to knock her off. They just need a Scott Brown.

This is especially evident in light of Gillibrand’s chief deficiency as a candidate: dreadful communication skills. She talks, often for far too long, almost exclusively in political clichés. There is no blood in her veins, at least not in public. This would have been fine in a year like 2008, when the playing field was so slanted in the Democrats’ favor. But not in 2010.