I've been writing a lot about the role Fox News and the right wing noise machine played in getting Scott Brown elected in Massachusetts. Margery Eagan, a Boston Herald reporter (who supported Coakley) told Howard Kurtz that right-wing talk radio and sports talk radio demonized Martha Coakley endlessly. This was a big part of her fall after she held a 31-point lead in MA.
CNN's Reliable Sources:
On Boston newspapers’ coverage of the Massachusetts Senate race
EAGAN: Well, she got very good press from "The Boston Globe," not from my paper, "The Boston Herald." But you know something? People don't like -- TV journalists and newspaper journalists do not like to talk about the influence of talk radio. Let me tell you something. There was a nonstop hammering of Martha Coakley on the AM stations here, on the huge sports stations here. She was the evil incarnate and Scott Brown was the next coming. And, you know, the New England Patriots in the playoffs lost early on. It was as if there was this transference from Tom "Terrific" Brady, the quarterback of the Patriots, to Scott "Terrific" Brown. You look at the rallies for Scott Brown, they were very white, they were very suburban, they were Gillette Stadium fans, and there was almost this...
KURTZ: But just briefly, did you mean to say earlier that "The Boston Globe" tilted towards Democratic candidate Martha Coakley, and your paper, "The Boston Herald," tilted towards Scott Brown in the news coverage?
EAGAN: Well, I would say my paper was pretty much cheerleading for Scott Brown. We're the conservative paper in town, and The Globe, I think, was -- they were evenhanded somewhat, but I think that they were definitely cheerleading for Martha Coakley, absolutely. They're the liberal paper in town. That's the way it always is.
I cover the sports media on C&L all the time because I think it's important to show how they act like the Beltway media elite -- they have their own Village. And their political reach is greater than people think, because the sports talkers are uniformly right-wing and they love to bash liberals, just like their "opinion show" counterparts. Locally, AM right wing hate talk radio does play a major role in the GOP propaganda battles and it worked very well for them in Massachusetts.
Eagan names what the media elites will dare not: the actual influence right-wing talkers have in America. Good for her.
If there ever was another nation beautifully primed for an explosion of deadly irrational politics, it's us.
. . . but can't we just admit that Coakley ran a terrible campaign?
Taking a weeklong vacation in December, weeks before the election? And the incredibly tone-deaf statement to the Boston Globe, suggesting that "standing outside Fenway Park . . .
[i]n the cold . . . [s]haking hands" was beneath her.
Coakley might as well have given the seat away.
a crappy campaign, but don't ignore everything else that was going on. The big money spent against her and the media hype were overwhelming, even for a candidate who was on the ball.
Coakley out raised Brown nearly 5 to 1.
Open Secrets here
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
to make fun of the way people in Massachusetts talk?? (Kidding)
Come on John...let it rest.
Who cares what they were saying on talk radio to a bunch of sports wackos? She fell right into their hands when she said that Kurt Schilling was a YANKEES fan!!
That state is the most Democratic state in the country. I think Obama won there by 30%!!!
He came to the state to campaign for her two days before the election. A voter there would have to be blind, deaf and dumb to have not realized that not only did Barack Obama want her to be elected, so did Ted Kennedy's WIDOW!!
But it didn't help when Coakley announced she was running for "Kennedy's Seat" a week after he died!!
Seriously John. She lost it fair and square!
And I, for one, am thrilled that she lost. I'm thrilled that the corporations lost the vote they needed to vote in the despotic HCR legislation.
I hope they DO go back to the drawing board and come up with a "BETTER" bill.
She was arrogant and the Democratic Party is STILL being arrogant after this loss.
John, if you have yesterday's LA Times, check out the article about him on the front page, "Who Is Scott Brown" by Kathleen Hennessey.
And here's a great article that explains what happened in Massachusetts by Trudy Lieberman of the Columbia Journalism Review:
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2010/01...
Cheer up John!!! Things could be worse!!! Coakley might have been elected and we'd all be saddled with a nasty corporate give-away for the next ten years!!!
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
We've lost any form of democracy- there is nothing fair or square about it.
Seriously, how can you possibly say Coakley, although an idiot, "lost fair and square"? The Right wing noise machine including FOX and sports radio, idiot voters who blame Obama and the Dems for the last Eight years of Bush/Cheney destroying the economy, Obama's total cluelessness and punching hippies, and liberals and youth who refused to go to the polls might have had something to do with it as well.
She lost it fair and square because it is only one subset of morons who listen to Fox. They are right-wingers anyhow! Any of the voters who watched Fox or who were paying attention to "sportscasters" on the radio and who decided to vote for Brown were most likely NOT Obama supporters anyhow!!!
All they're telling us is what Brown's base was doing leading up to the election!! Hello?!
In spite of Obama coming to the state to bail her arrogant ass out, in spite of Vickie Kennedy's endorsement, in spite of the fact that she outspent Brown 5:1, the Democratic base were so DISGUSTED by the healthcare reform legislation that was pending and also with the fact that it was taking so long, and also with the fact that they could see it was Massachusetts' own FAILED MASS PLAN that they are all having to live under (mandates/fines/penalties/high premiums/high deductibles), and also because Obama had STILL not done anything to prevent yet ANOTHER Wall St. bailout etc., etc., etc., that they decided to either hold their noses and "go along to get along" with Obama, vote for Brown or just stay home in disgust.
That's how you lose elections Tom.
And therefore my feeling that Brown won "fair and square".
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
I don't know where you get your information, but the Mass Plan has been successful. The draw back is that it does not contain strong cost controls and the insurance companies have taken advantage of this. For example, Blue Cross is raising its rates app. 20% siting increased costs, this after recording millions in profits for 2009. In addition, MA would be penalized under the federal health care bill that is now in Congress.
cutting off your nose to spite your face.
That it was comments like "standing outside Fenway Park" and Curt Schilling is a Yankees fan were the very ammunition that gave the Sports talkers the rationale to attack her? After all, with the 'Pats out, the Celtics in a slump, and the Sox off, what else did they have to mindlessly dirbble on about?
Her failure to understand and respond to her gaffes is symbolic of her bad campaign. But it was really Obama, don't you see?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
many of the sport types that voted for Brown were what are called "Massholes". You know the type, either Southies or Preppies, everything is the Patriots, Red Sox, or Celtics. Their whole lives revolve around the teams, are practically ignorant of all else and are especially ignorant sports fans.
. . . you're discounting the fact that these kinds of guys are representative of Americans generally in many respects. Americans like sports, and beer, and being No. 1, and Americans love politicians who exude strength and confidence even if its all smoke and mirrors. Ronald Reagan was all rosy optimism, while Jimmy Carter admonished us against rising oil prices. Al Gore and John Kerry were characterized as indecisive, while George W. Bush was out clearing brush. Even Obama, notwithstanding the egghead tag, looked confident and in control in comparison to McCain, who looked old and broken. Indeed, this is the lesson Karl Rove learned early in his political career, and exactly why he dressed Shrub up in a flight suit and refused to let anyone in the Bush administration admit they were ever wrong on any issue.
Americans like a gunslinger. The failure to grasp this truth is a trait shared by a lot of Democrats generally, including Coakley and Obama, frankly. They somehow believe that Americans respond to well-reasoned arguments, when we know from decades of experience that the exact opposite is true. Elections are popularity contests, not contests of ideas or idealogy, and as present circumstances demonstrate you can be right on all the issues but still lose at the polls if you don't convince enough people that your plans and ideas should pass.
the difference between a heroic image and a true hero:
Ronald Reagan made movies.......Jimmie Carter was a nuclear sub commander
Bill Clinton received deferments......GHW Bush was a combat pilot
Bill Clinton received deferments......Bob Dole was a Purple Heart Veteran
GW Bush was in the Guard and deserted his obligation.....Al Gore was a combat journalist
GW Bush was in the Guard and deserted his obligation.....John Kerry received a Silver Star and 3 purple hearts
Barach Obama did not serve.......John McCain was a POW
I'm not sure what is the formula for being a hero but American voters have no special regard for true heroes.
If Audie Murphy ran against Tom Hanks in a Presidential election Tom Hanks would win hands down because he can be made to look Presidential.
'Talk to the hand'
. . . to the extent you suggest that most voters are poorly informed and gravitate towards style rather than substance.
That being said, I disagree with the suggestion, albeit implicit, that military service equates roughly to heroism.
The most popular shows (and there's not alot of choice) have broadcasters who don't mind (often) voiceing their opinions in support of consrvative politics.
It's really sickening, anti-union, pro-Bush diatribes filtered into what you really might want to listen to as a sports fan.
One reason why I don't listen too often. It makes me sick.
conservatives practiced guilt by association.
........but i've heard that Coakley had a bed on casters which her campaign staff would use to wheel her between campaign stops.......and as I understand there was much, much, time between campaign stops.
'Talk to the hand'
Yeah, Coakley ran a lousy campaign, acted like she was waiting to be coronated after she won the primary, went on vacation and phoned it in until it was entirely too late, but what Eagen says is absolutely true. Sports Talk Radio just shredded her 24/7 along with the Herald, Fox and the rest of the talk radio trash. That cost her dearly with men and she just took the election and the voters for granted until it was too late.
Still, this Schilling thing is wildly overstated half truth. She was talking about Brown bringing Rudy G in, called him a Yankee fan and when asked about Schilling, she said him, too and added that he's not here anymore.
Schilling endorsed Bush over Kerry two days after the '04 Series Win and just before the election. Kerry won handily and Bush got trounced in New England. Schilling's stock was never higher than it was then and it's considerably lower now.
Face it, the natives are restless and they want results. They don't give a damn about the facts and the evidence. They want change and they want it yesterday.
Bring Howard Dean back to the DNC. They won with him. Then let him run point on healthcare after the election whether Rahm likes it or not.
No wonder I hated the Patriots so much. Just looking at them on TV, I knew their fans were right winger tea partiers. Same with Celtics.
End the Reichwing's monopoly on "information distribution".
... 'fair, equitable, and honest' is worthless if you can't hold broadcasters accountable. FOX Noise is built on the lie of 'fair and balanced' and even had the sham of 'Hannity and Colmes' ... and that's enough for the brainwashed masses.
Objective journalism must nonetheless make value decisions, and the media's descent into meaningless babble is the outcome of the people yelling "BIAS!"
Balanced coverage is not giving equal time to 2+2=5.
"I've been writing a lot about the role Fox News and the right wing noise machine played in getting Scott Brown elected in Massachusetts."
Isn't it even remotely possible that Martha Coakley simply ran an inferior campaign? That's what I read on other blogs: Scott Brown's campaign was vastly superior to Coakley's. This business of always blaming Fox News for every dreary thing that happens to "liberals" begins to sound like the "Commie under every bed" meme of 50 years ago, after a while.
I never watch Fox News; I tend to get my news from blogs like Daily Kos. I can't stand O'Reilly and I never watch Hannity, Beck, or the rest. But I firmly believe that it is more than a tiny stretch to blame Fox News because the Liberals and Progressives have no clue how to fight fire with fire.
It wasn't just an oblivious candidate. Simple to blame Coakley for not paying attention is one dimensional, when there were many other factors in play.
Who or what you blame depends for many on who or what they think is the guiding force in the universe, at least at the moment they choose
to blame.
Me, I am grateful that we got those commies out from under the bed even if it took a whole half century.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
The arrogance of power.
She thought she could skate in with the endorsement of Vickie Kennedy and a posh fund-raiser given to her by the insurance lobbyists in D.C.
She was wrong.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Co...
it doesn't discount the other factors. There are reasons why a 30 pt lead vanishes so quickly.
it relies completely on uncontested talk radio repetition to do the heavy lifting.
Robert Reich here
emphasis added:
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I haven't watched sports in ten years and I don't remember commentators being political or outspoken. The little tid bits I've seen I've noticed it. It was coached. An agenda introduced and coordinated by their editors.
Another good reason not to watch professional sports. Ruined by money and greed.
Faux Tistic!
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
that I no longer follow sports. The last year (2002) that I watched baseball it had a nasty little weasel named Thom Brenneman as an announcer. Apparently it was his job to announce how wonderful Dumbya was.
Buh-byyye, MLB!
You had Bob Costas in Athens, who clearly hadn't read his briefing book on the opening ceremonies, so he's making dumb comments like, "I guess those are some of the Greek gods," or wondering why the IOC president was making her remarks in English, French, and Greek.
But there was also a tendency to focus on American athletes sitting on benches and toweling off, as opposed to other competitors on the floor.
http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/Vin%20...
Still going strong at 82!!
Can't wait to go to Dodger Stadium for a game!!!
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
But the concensus among local commenters here is that this precipitous 31 point drop could only explained by people waking up to the deception of Obama.
There is no local in Massachoosy.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
" Nice try John. But the concensus among local commenters here is that this precipitous 31 point drop could only explained by people waking up to the deception of Obama."
I must agree with you, ricky. In my mind, almost from the start, I saw this election as much a referendum on Barak Obama as an election for a Senator in Massachusetts. I truly had high hopes when I watched Obasma take his oath of office. I truly hoped that I was watching the start of a presidency that was worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as the presidency of FDR. But unfortunately, we saw the Obama presidency unfold, and as a result we have Senator Scott Brown.
Harry Reid used to whine that he couldn't accomplish anything with a 60-vote filibuster-proof majority. Now that he has a 59-41 NON-filibuster-proof majority, if he and the Democrats can't or won't accomplish anything this session, I will be VERY unhappy in November and will vote accordingly.
it must be true! Of course I was joking. And refering to people from Iowa such as yourself who knew in advance in your mind what would happen in Massachusetts and why.
Obama had a fairly high job performance rating from Massachusetts voters on election eve according to Rasmussen, who is a Republican pollsters whose performance ratings have Obama consistently rated lower than do other pollsters. Rasmussen was also the first to track Brown's rise and Coakley's demise.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
on the HCR legislation, that is when Brown and Coakley's polling numbers crossed paths and he headed to the top and she headed to the bottom.
Bob Herbert highlighted this in his op-ed in the NYT a few days ago in this paragraph:
"While the nation was suffering through the worst economy since the Depression, the Democrats wasted a year squabbling like unruly toddlers over health insurance legislation. No one in his or her right mind could have believed that a workable, efficient, cost-effective system could come out of the monstrously ugly plan that finally emerged from the Senate after long months of shady alliances, disgraceful back-room deals, outlandish payoffs and abject capitulation to the insurance companies and giant pharmaceutical outfits."
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
from 1000 radio stations focused on mass.
pols are always making deals.
During a Meet the Press interview on Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, “The exit polls that I looked at said 48 percent of the people in Massachusetts said they voted for the new senator over health care. Only 5 percent mentioned any other issue. The American people had a victory in Massachusetts, and they were sending us the message ‘stop and start over.’”
Everything I have read stated that either there was no exit polling so why didn’t David Gregory call out McConnell on this? The networks continue to be a vehicle for spreading false and misleading information, especially for the Conservatives. George Stephanopoulos fessed up to his error/incompetence. Mr. Gregory has failed to do so.
The Republicans make so many false statements it is difficult to counter every single lie. However, lying to the American people about health care reform needs to be aggressively called out. When is the press going to do its job and get the truth out to the American people?
obscure little fact.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274...
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
and there has been no mention of electronic voting machines. We know they can't be reliable.
on our ability to steal this election!
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
The voting machines in Massachusetts are scanning machines that are extremely accurate and there has not been any problems with vote counts. In fact the use of these machines have been advocated for use throughout the U.S., because they scan an ink mark and provide a paper trail.
Just because you are "smart" and it is beneath you and your friends to listen, you are very stupid if you don't understand the power of AM talk radio. This is central to an understanding corporate control over our revolting politics. First there is 24/7 right-wing hate radio. Then there is 24/7 right-wing all-guy sports radio. That is it. And sports is not called the opiate of the people for nothing.
But Obama has to be nice and immediately took reviving the fairness doctrine off the table. Wasn't it nice of him to cut the throat of liberals and progressives who try to get elected all across the country? Quick send him a think you letter for that.
Well, since he decided, like all you snobs who don't listen to AM radio, he was better than those crazy, left wing liberals and he only had to kiss republican ass and they would fall over him and vote for him, he apparently doesn't care that this has already cut his own throat as well.
Oh, well... The teabaggers have already won 2012, dumb ass.
Who put reviving the fairness doctrine on the table before Obama took it off? And where did he put it? In the locker next to the one in the basement where Nancy Pelosi put impeachment?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
You are so silly and obnoxious this morning.
Since you start off addressing a generic "stupid" I thought I would ask a simple question so I could be edcuated by someone considered "smart." At least so considered by himself.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Blah...
off the table?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Do work today, so I was not able to respond properly (f I was smart I'd have become a banker or wall streeter and made a load of money off bankrupting the country).
But yes, giving away the candy store seems to be a weird pattern that Dems like to play in order to lose and appear like a weakling so the GOP can walk over you more effectively. It is the basis of the ruins of a health care plan we are now forced to support. It is beyond stupid.
There still was no way to win once the Boston sports radio jocks turned on the woman who didn't care about winning. It is a corporate controlled world and we only exist to be their beholden customers.
for a couple of weeks because he put a RUSH tattoo on the foreheads of all their media operatives and GOP politicians. they couldn't use the talking points as easily. then in the health care speech he named talk radio first and cable TV second as sources of the lies that fueled the town hall crap and teabaggers. but both times the left dropped the ball and usually just blames fox, or goes after limbaugh personally. also obama said that fox was behaving like talk radio, which i think indicates obama is somewhat aware of the problem. but like everywhere, the dem political analysts have no clue because there is nothing for them to read. the dems needs a searchable database of the main national and local transcripts.
i wouldn't put it on obama, the dem establishment and all those progressives who said they'd get his back completely ignore that he's getting whacked all day with an invisible political 2x4- basically giving the modern KKK the biggest soapbox in the country. and many of them believe limbaugh/hannity talking points on the fairness doctrine.
better than trying to get a new fairness doctrine, teh limbaugh megastations need to be picketed until the election. let the media see, the communities see, the politicians see the left is getting their back. every progressive issue can be protested at those radio stations, the power centers of the GOP and all the obstruction, laundering lobbyist talking points all day long.
where else to picket? no one pays attention to demonstrations at state capitols, and the local RW radio stations distort the message and make fun to a crowd 100 times the size anyway.
She milque-toasts her way through the Herald week after week, collecting a paycheck from those bozos.
What is worse, especially in this context, is that she draws a paycheck from the Jim and Margery show on WTKK. Or as my favorite station (the Phoenix, affiliated with the independent newspaper) puts it, WKKK.
She knows about hate radio because she is the Alan Colmes of Boston Hate Radio.
You are suggesting she is so dumb she bites the hand that feeds her?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
If she's so flabbergasted with this system, she should mount a more solid take-down from the inside (and actually stop making nice on-air with the odious right-wing personalities on her station) or quit.
The white night slays the liberal dragon lady.
Facts be damned.
31 point lead, at least a 2-1 money advantage and arguably the bluest state in America. Coakley lost because she was out campaigned by the rethugs. A few weeks before the election when TPM reported that Brown was closing on Coakley her campaign was still insisting that their polling showed her with a 14 point lead. Arrogant and tone deaf; Coakley's campaign from day one.
Yes, right wing media and sports radio were not very kind to Coakley, but they preach to the choir and their influence is limited. If one does not read the Boston Herald, it has little, if any influence and the same can be said about radio. There were many issues surrounding Coakley's candidacy. First, her record as Attorney General was overstated, as she failed to prosecute any corrupt state politicians and her success of going after corruption involving the "Big Dig" was limited. Secondly, her sense of entitlement concerning the Senate seat led to a poorly run campaign. She failed to forcefully challenge Brown on the issues, especially his misstatements concerning the health care bill in Congress, and she failed to campaign amongst the voters. By the way, with fingers crossed and nose firmly held, I voted for Coakley!
she wasn't a very good candidate, she ran a horrible campaign, and as much as we want health care reform, we don't want obama's current plan which looks like a horrible one.
i live in MA and voted.
We already have the plan that the Senate bill is based upon. As a doc, I can assure everyone that things are working much better for me and my patients.
You might be one of the 19% who want Mass Care repealed, but that makes for a really strange progressive, no?
Coakley was a bad candidate and a poorly-run campaign who did not have the full backing of her state party. They screwed up. Time to move on.
Ma..ma..ma..Massachusetts is such a metaphor.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
You describe Eagan as a reporter who supported Coakley? Reporters don't support candidates. Columnists sometimes do; so which is Eagan -- a reporter who objectively reports on bias against Coakley in other news sources, or a columnist who supported her?
Jesus H. C., learn something about true journalism, wouldja?
of Massachusetts are not privy to: (From an article written by Trudy Lieberman)
"A year ago, the Boston Globe reported that the Attorney General Coakley was probing whether Partners and Blue Cross “may have illegally colluded to increase the price of health insurance statewide over the last nine years.” The AG’s investigation was in response to an in-depth Globe report from late December 2008 that described a handshake agreement between Partners and Blue Cross which, the Globe said, resulted in Blue Cross raising “the rate it pays Partners by 75 percent since 2000.” Partners also pressured the state’s other big insurers to offer similarly large increases that were passed on to policyholders. “There’s still no public word. Why the delay?” Mihos asked.
It’s not clear whether or how often Coakley’s investigation has come up during the campaign, but it appears there is no resolution. In late November, the Globe reported that “no court action has been taken” in the Partners case, and it noted that Coakley had received an endorsement from Partners chairman Jack Connors Jr. A campaign spokesman told the paper that Connors’s support had no impact on her decisions as attorney general. We called Coakley’s campaign to ask about disposition of the investigation, but no one returned our call."
Arrogance anyone??!
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
That "handshake" agreement was merely Blue Cross finally making its payments to MGH, Brigham and Women's and Dana Farber in line with the enhanced payments that Medicare/Medicaid provides to those hospitals as Centers of Excellence.
The Globe has a running vendetta against the Harvard hospitals and Beth Israel, because it sells papers. But other than when Chuck Grassley (of all people) exposed some foul play among a few Harvard researchers, their reporting has generally been bunk on this topic.
And the Partners hierarchy endorsed Coakley because we have been pushing for health care reform for a LONG time, from the top to the bottom of the physician job ladder.
There is no there there. Coakley also didn't investigate water for being wet.
From my point of view at least. The vast majority of Bostonians that I meet are Bruins fans. I'm not sure if they qualify so much for being right wingers than they do for being neanderthals.
She's got a point about talk radio. Howie Carr has a big show down there and he also happens to be a columnist at the Boston Herald. He is a small-market version of Rush Limbaugh if I ever heard one. The venom and hate that spews from this guy really shows how far the good people of Boston have fallen.
We're progs. The neanderthals are clustered into the sub-burbs, and Brown still only won some of those.
It was the Cape that was the death knell. Only P-Town went for Coakley.
You could have given Coakley all the votes from the Cape and she would have lost by 50,000 votes, instead of 110,000. In addition to P-Town, she carried Truro, Eastham and Wellfleet.
My 2 biggest complaints about "professional sports" -
1) Enormous waste of talent, energy, time, money and resources that could be used solving real problems;
2) Engenders exactly the kind of mindless "my team is better than your team" attitude that plays directly into partisan politics, making solving real problems very difficult.
And it all starts in High School, where "my school is better than your school" is mindlessly drilled into everyone's head.
Cheerleaders (GW and Palin were cheerleaders) will tell you their school is the best and your school sucks. It's their job. And that job plays out in political life. They're not interested in solving problems, they just want their side to win, and they will say and do anything they think can facilitate that outcome.
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
Martha Coakley ran a passive sorry-ass campaign and let her enemies define her. She held almost no rallies and insulted Boston Red Sox fans. She had a 20 point lead.
It's overwhelmingly her fault that she lost, not talk or sports radio.
Massachusetts is irrelevant. It's like so old and Kennedy-ish. Do we really need to waste time talking about these ruins.
You showed them Massachusetts…by God you showed them… .....er......exactly what message was that again????
Scott Brown....
has nothing to offer - NOTHING!!!
LuLu
So when does Coakley start to take responsibility for giving away this senate seat? I don't care what state you're in, if the voters feel that you don't give a damn about them, they're not going to elect you to office. For Coakley, it was to little to late. She sat on her ass for three weeks and blew off the voters in her state. She got what she desearved.
I see your point the elitist who didn`t know a damn baseball player
and took a vacation or Scott Brown who has nothing to offer - no solutions….no integrity…no plans but to say NO…
good thinking.
Jeezus
The American people deserve better.
Joe Kennedy was an candidate for MA what about him ?? If you didn’t like either candidate then what about someone else…….did you have to go all GOP on us…???
F*****!!!!
Have you forgotten the Bush years already….??? Yeah good times…Christ sakes…
Again what the hell is the message……??
“Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.”
Mark Twain
LuLu
Why did Ted Kennedy hold this seat for so many years? He got out and stayed connected with his voters. Coakley thought that because she had a double digit lead coming out of the primary, she wouldn't have to work all that hard for the seat. She ended up turning off voters who would have worked for her, knocked on doors for her and would have braved the snow and ice for her. Most of them stayed home.
She just gave the seat away to a teabagger like Scott Brown. If she put up an effort and lost, it would have been one thing. The first thing her campaign did after she conceded was blame the administration, the DNC and the DSSS. Coakley has yet to make any sort of statement. She allowed Brown to define her and her campaign.
As I said, I don't care what state you're from or what party you belong to, the voters are not just going to annoint you with any kind of office. If you're to goddamned lazy to work for it, you don't desearve it.
the left lets 1000 radio stations (that's just political) scream 'your dem mothers are whores' all day long and no one gets in their face. the left must stop ignoring its free speech responsibilities re radio.
all dems have to do is start recognizing the power of radio, picketing the main limbaugh stations. all that's necessary to energize the left base is get them to listen to limbaugh and hannity once in a while. and the pols will see the left finally getting their backs, and the media won't be so anxious to rechew the GOP framing that limbaugh and hannity prechew for them every day.
it really is as simple as to stop giving the right a free speech free ride to shout over everything progressives want to do.
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