This Blogger Gets It

Re:  Americans for Democratic Action – Blog, Posted by David Yamada on Jan 14 2010

Martha Coakley

In sum, a Brown victory would buoy the Republicans nationally, while substracting clout from the Massachusetts congressional delegation.

Though we cannot discount gender as an everpresent factor when it comes to breaking glass (or opaque) ceilings in the good ol’ boy world of Massachusetts politics, the failings of the Coakley campaign are largely responsible for this unfolding scenario. That said, we liberals who have been critical of the Democratic nominee simply have to get over it. The stakes go well beyond an individual candidacy.

My prognostication is that Scott Brown may have peaked a week too early. His surge in the polls came in time for the Democrats to sound the alarm bells to rescue this campaign and to get their voters to the polls.

But this result cannot be taken for granted.  If you vote in Massachusetts, the choice is clear.  If you know people in Massachusetts, urge them to consider the consequences of a GOP takeover of Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.

The stakes go well beyond an individual candidacy. Indeed. Way out here in Western Washington, out here on the Kitsap Peninsula about forty-five minutes by ferry from Seattle, we get it too. Whatever is going on within Massachusetts politics that has the Democratic Party there divided, then now is the time to reconcile those differences. We are as far from Boston as we can get and still be in the US and we understand the need for Massachusetts Democrats to drop their complaints about Attorney General Martha Coakley and come together to do this – if not for yourself then for us – who are way out here at another harbor.

We are sending money and many are making phone calls for Coakley from all the way out here because we know that if State Senator Scott Brown is elected, especially with health care hanging in the balance, the work-a-day folks will suffer way out here out west where it rains unceasingly from fall until the next spring. That is what’s at stake here. It’s not about who did what for Massachusetts, but who will do what for America. The election there shadows this whole nation like our ever-present rain clouds.  

__________________________________________________________________