GOP SENATE CANDIDATE FORUM
I will be MCing a forum tonight, Tuesday, 1/19, at 6:30 for the GOP Senate candidates. It’s in Philip Hall at the UW Tacoma, in the Milgard Assembly Room. It’s directly across the street from the State History Museum on Pacific Avenue.
MONDAY’S MUSINGS
WELL, MUCH to talk about. Let’s start with Massachusetts. Yesterday, President Obama spoke at a rally for Martha Coakley and admitted he knew little about Scott Brown, then made some pickup truck jokes ( Brown has made driving his pickup truck a hall mark of his campaign). Congressman Patrick Kennedy, Ted’s son, kept referring to her as Marcia Coakley. The President seemed uninspired, some suggested teleprompter troubles. Scott Brown had a rally at the same time and the Boston Globe ( the liberal paper ) reported the crowds were similar in size and that Brown stayed afterwards to shake hands and mix with the crowd, something Coakley hasn’t done yet.
BY THE WAY, Brown had real people like Curt Schilling, Doug Flutie and John Ratzenberger of Cheers fame on the stage with him, while Coakley had politicians. Ratzenberger talked about how the Democrats had left him when they turned radically left and how he helped build the stage at Woodstock and saw those ‘hippies’ before they took over the party.
ALL OF THE PUBLIC polls show Brown winning, though most are within the margin of error. Stuart Rothenberg, dean of political analysts, announced today that he is moving the race from ” toss up ” to ” leaning GOP takeover “. And, if the new social media is an indicator, Brown is leading. Brown has 76,538 fans on his Facebook page, Coakley 14,441; On Twitter, Brown has 10,187 followers, Coakley 3,514. The total uploaded views of Brown’s You Tube videos is 578,271 versus 51,173 for Coakley. And Chris Matthews of MSNBC is now saying that it looks like a Brown win. Yeah, Matthews. That guy. He didn’t say if it sent a chill up his leg.
TOMORROW, IT will be all about turnout and momentum. Advantage Brown, no question. Is Massachusetts really about to elect a Republican to the U S Senate? It looks like it. Some thoughts later on what it all means.
THE IPCC IS WITHDRAWING their claim the global warming will melt the Himalayan glaciers by 2035. Let’s see how the media covers this story. Bets?
HEADLINE IN THE New York Times this AM: “Review of Jet Bomb Plot Shows More Missed Clues”. Our administration really is clueless in DC.
A RECENT WASHINGTON POST/ABC NEWS poll showed 58% of Americans chose smaller and fewer when given a choice between smaller government and fewer services and bigger government and more services. The spread between the two choices has grown from 5% to 20% since the nomination of President Obama in June of 2008.
AND, IN THE I TOLD YOU SO CATEGORY, Democrats in the Washington State Legislature announced they were introducing legislation to make holding a cell phone while driving a primary offense. The fine will be $124.00. It’s all about revenue my friends. Expect more ingenious ways to come out of this bunch. And, several gun control bills have been introduced as well. I am watching them and will report on their progress for you.
Last Friday Post
A COUPLE OF last minute things. When I posted this AM at 3:00 about The Book of Eli, in my raving about the movie, and encouraging you to see it, I failed to mention that at times the movie is pretty violent. Call it Road Warrior meets the Bible. The violence did not bother me because of the context of the film, a post-apocalyptic world, and the bad guys are evil and the good guys are defending truth. But, it may bother you, so be warned.
MARTHA COAKLEY IS at it again. Yesterday on radio, she called Curt Schilling, he of the bloody sock fame, a ’ Yankees fan ‘. She should quit opening her mouth about those things she knows nothing about, but then, she may have nothing to say at all. And, that poll that showed Scott Brown up four points also asked about Obamacare. Now, this poll was of likely voters, which is really the only segment of the population that counts in an election year. It showed Obamacare support at 36%, opposition at 51% and that 61% of the voters think Washington can’t afford the plan. Which candidate in this race opposes Obamacare? Which one’s victory on Tuesday night would stop the bill according to Barney Frank? Maybe the voters of Massachusetts do know what they are doing.
AND, LASTLY, ANOTHER Democrat Congressman says adios. Vic Snyder of the Second District of Arkansas said he would not be running for reelection. Snyder, according to the Almanac of American Politics, was the most liberal member of the Arkansas delegation and had no GOP opponent in 2008. But, he was facing stiff GOP opposition in November. What has changed since 2008? I’ll let you think about that one for a while.
More Friday Posts
NEW REPORT from Massachusetts that Coakley’s internal polls show Brown up by 2-4 points. Four more days.
HAVE YOU HEARD what that idiot leftist actor, Danny Glover said about Haiti? ” When we see what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens, you know what I am sayin’. “. Hot Air has the video. So Gaia killed hundreds of thousands of people because there was no global warming treaty? And people thought Pat Robertson was wacko for what he supposedly said?? Let’s see the public/media response to Glover and compare the two, shall we?
AND, FINALLY, I have always been proud of our armed forces, for many reasons. The American military has been a force for good in the world, defeating German militarism in WWI, the forces of evil fascism in WWII, and the Communists in the Cold War, then displacing Saddam and so on. But, when disaster strikes, especially in such a poor dysfunctional country as Haiti, who is there, supplying needed medicine and supplies, and perhaps, just as importantly, providing order so the aid can get to where it needs to be? It’s our military, doing what no one else can or will do. God bless them all. And, the next time some idiot Hollywood producer like James Cameron, wants to make millions off the notion that our military is composed of brainless, bloodthirsty thugs, perhaps someone will remind him of Haiti, and Indonesia, and ………….
NEWS FROM MASSACHUSETTS
THERE IS A LOT OF news breaking out of Massachusetts this morning relating to the Senate race there, almost all of it good for Scott Brown, the Republican.
The President just announced he is going to Massachusetts to campaign with Martha Coakley, the Democrat, on Sunday. Obama has stayed out of this race, I think in part because of his fear of hurting the candidate as he did in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races. That he has changed his mind four days before the election is a hail mary move and a sign of deep desperation.
And, the Democrat’s desperation is deep. A new poll, done by Suffolk University and WHDH TV shows Brown UP by four. Brown leads the independents by a better than 2 to 1 ratio, similar to Virginia and New Jersey results last November in their gubernatorial races, and similar to national trends of independents turning from Obama. Brown has raised a million dollars or more each day this week. Byron York, political correspondent for the Washington Examiner, reports this morning that one ‘well-connected Democratic strategist’ told him that ‘the bottom has fallen out of her poll numbers’.
Then, there are the fund-raising appeals from the Democrats, signed by Nancy Pelosi, Chris Dodd, John Kerry, trying to tie Brown to ‘far-right tea baggers’ and claiming that Coakley is being Swift-boated. Desperation drips from the copy. But, according to David Paleologis, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, the use of big name Democrats may have a negative effect on independent voters.
Coakley has got to be the worst candidate of all time which doesn’t help her chances. A campaign aide shoved a reporter to the ground when he approached her and tried to ask a question, then tried to keep him on the ground while the candidate made her escape. It’s all on tape and is being shown all over the state. While Brown is campaigning in the state, she is at a fundraiser in DC with Big Pharma lobbyists. On radio, she said, in response to a question about Catholics in hospitals being forced to participate in abortions, ” You can have religious freedom, but you probably shouldn’t work in an emergency room. “ Earlier this week, when asked about Brown’s campaigning on the streets and her being in DC at a fundraiser, she rejected the idea of shaking hands with voters outside Fenway Park because it was cold. Earlier, in her last TV debate, she said we should withdraw from Afghanistan because there are no terrorists left there. (Wow, she is worse than Patty Murray, and if elected, could displace Patty from winning the ‘rocket scientist’ of the Senate award from Washingtonian magazine.).
Brown should still be considered a long shot, but he has momentum on his side, and momentum in the last days of a campaign, especially in a close race, a close special election with light turnout expected, is often THE critical factor in how a race turns out. If he wins on Tuesday, it will be the biggest political earthquake of this generation and will impact November’s Congressional elections significantly.
