Byron York writes in a Washington Examiner article that "the bottom has fallen out" of Martha Coakley's polling, casting a growing sense of doom on her election chances. As I wrote earlier according to the latest polling, Scott Brown leads Martha Coakley 50% - 46%. The Democrats are so desperate to keep this seat in the D column that Obama is now going to Massachusetts in a last ditch effort to save Martha Coakley's campaign:
His health care bill at stake, President Barack Obama plans a weekend trip to Massachusetts to campaign for endangered Senate candidate Martha Coakley after a poll showed an edge for Republicans in the race for a seat Democrats have held for over a half-century.The White House said he will travel there Sunday.
"If Scott Brown wins, it'll kill the health bill," Democrat Barney Frank, D-Mass., said, underscoring the stakes of Tuesday's special election.
Said presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs: "I don't think Scott Brown is going to win on Tuesday."
Obama's trip was hastily arranged as the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress sought to nail down a deal on historic legislation overhauling the country's system of medical care. His visit comes after he taped a Web video e-mailed to his supporters and an automated phone call asking Massachusetts to vote for Coakley, and promising "She'll be your voice and my ally."
The goal here is to drag Coakley across the finish line because it seems she is incapable of getting herself there on her own. Which brings me to a question. Why would the voters of Massachusetts even want her to represent them in the Senate in the first place if she can't finish the race without having to be carried? Don't they want someone who's capable and competent and does not need to be dragged because she thinks she's above campaigning herself?
And who says the Massachusetts voters will automatically fall in line and vote for Coakley just because Obama has come to town and told them to? Apparently the Democrats think enough of them will, which tells us they don't have a very high opinion of their fellow Americans in Massachusetts.
Update: Mark Steyn has a grand ole time with the possibility of a Republican winning "Ted Kennedy's seat" in the US Senate:
I've been out of the country for a couple of days, so let me see if I've got this right: America's preparing to celebrate the first anniversary of Good King Barack the Hopeychanger's reign by electing a Republican?In Massachusetts?
In what the tin-eared plonkers of the Democrat machine still insist on calling "Ted Kennedy's seat"?
Remember the good old days when the glossy magazine covers competed for the most worshipful image of the new global colossus? If you were at the Hopeychange inaugural ball on Jan. 20, 2009, when Barney Frank dived into the mosh pit, and you chanced to be underneath when he landed, and you've spent the past year in a coma, you must surely wonder if you've woken up in an alternative universe. The last thing you remember before Barney came flying down is Harry Reid waltzing you round the floor while murmuring sweet nothings about America being ready for a light-skinned brown man with no trace of a Negro dialect. And now you're in some dystopian nightmare where Massachusetts is ready for a nude-skinned Brown man with no trace of a Kennedy dialect.
How can this be happening?
Read all of it. It's hilarious.
Update II: Even Coakley's internal polling shows that she's trailing Brown.



Comments (18)
Let him come. He doesn't ha... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Clay | January 15, 2010 3:48 PM | Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
Let him come. He doesn't have much political capital these days...even in MA. I can see Brown as the main beneficiary of an Obama visit.
1. Posted by Clay | January 15, 2010 3:48 PM |
Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2010 15:48
2. Posted by sam | January 15, 2010 4:09 PM | Score: 12 (12 votes cast)
Olympics bid for Chicago? Fail.
NJ for Corzine? Fail.
VA for Deeds? Fail.
Copenhagen for Climate Deal? Fail.
I detect a pattern.
2. Posted by sam | January 15, 2010 4:09 PM |
Score: 12 (12 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2010 16:09
3. Posted by Sir Toby Belch | January 15, 2010 4:25 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
You always hurt the one you love,
The one you shouldn't hurt at all.
3. Posted by Sir Toby Belch | January 15, 2010 4:25 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2010 16:25
4. Posted by 914 | January 15, 2010 4:28 PM | Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Where ever Barry goes misery and loss are sure to follow.
4. Posted by 914 | January 15, 2010 4:28 PM |
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2010 16:28
5. Posted by kevino | January 15, 2010 4:54 PM | Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Unfortunately, I think that President Obama's visit will help Coakley. All fifteen Republicans and most of the independents are going to vote for Brown, but the "Dawn of the Dead" liberals, the union bosses, and the crocked ward-healers are looking at their candidate and wondering if it's worth the trouble. Obama has lost independent voters - even in Mass, but he can still energize the deep-blue base. If they can stuff enough ballot boxes and cart enough old or homeless people to the polls, it might be enough to win the election for Coakley and save Obama's domestic agenda.
5. Posted by kevino | January 15, 2010 4:54 PM |
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2010 16:54
6. Posted by OLDPUPPYMAX | January 15, 2010 5:04 PM | Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Hussein is heading to Mass in order to get out the BLACK vote. Pure and simple. The interesting part is that he was forced into this cataclysmic decision by Rush! First up in Rush's program today was the view that Obama will NOT go to bat for Coakley if the White House considers her campaign already lost. What can Obama do in response? If he stays in DC, it becomes an admission that Rush is right...the election is lost, so why go! Well naturally Obama can't have that. So Rush reported the White House tidbit that Obama would head to Mass on Sunday exactly 52 minutes into the broadcast. Interesting, huh?
6. Posted by OLDPUPPYMAX | January 15, 2010 5:04 PM |
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2010 17:04
7. Posted by Neo | January 15, 2010 5:32 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Yet another Copenhagen
7. Posted by Neo | January 15, 2010 5:32 PM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2010 17:32
8. Posted by Wayne | January 15, 2010 5:32 PM | Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
If all else fail the Dems will find the needed ballots in their trunks.
8. Posted by Wayne | January 15, 2010 5:32 PM |
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2010 17:32
9. Posted by bobdog | January 15, 2010 6:38 PM | Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Even odds somebody will eventually get indicted over the results for this election.
9. Posted by bobdog | January 15, 2010 6:38 PM |
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2010 18:38
10. Posted by Carol | January 15, 2010 7:21 PM | Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
With the Obamacare being so unpopular it makes me wonder if emphasizing that it is in jeopardy if Brown wins is really a plus for the Democrats. Obama's visit is really loudly declaring that it is in jeopardy.
I wonder how many Democrats and Independents will vote for Brown because they don't like this bill?
10. Posted by Carol | January 15, 2010 7:21 PM |
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2010 19:21
11. Posted by jim m | January 15, 2010 7:33 PM | Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
When I moved here I expected to be the only conservative in the state. Boy was I wrong! The notion that there are no republicans here is totally off base. Yeah, I'm probably far more conservative than most of them (but then I was that way back in Illinois so no surprise there).
There are a lot of people who may not consider themselves republican who plan to vote for Brown. He is crushing Coakley with the independent vote.
Healthcare is a loser by 15% here in 'Massachusettes'. Obama is just as deeply unpopular here as he is anywhere else in the country. Bringing him here to talk about healthcare and preserving the "Kennedy Seat" is just going to piss people off.
Brown's comment about it being 'the people's seat' really resonated. Voters are turned off big time by the imperial attitude of Coakley and the dems, who give the appearance that they believe that this seat is some hereditary right.
Obama has no coattails. His video message is more of the same elect Coakley so I can have healthcare/the dems own this seat so it's wrong to vote for someone else crap. That video just further energized he Brown voters. His presence here this weekend will do more to energize the opposition than it will the dem voters. He's not liked. She's not liked. The best any liberal can do in an endorsement is to say "She's all we got. Yeah, I wish someone else won the primary, but I have to go and vote for her anyway." Not inspiring.
I think Brown's going to win. If the weather turns bad I think he wins easy because her voters are not motivated to come out in anything but the best weather.
11. Posted by jim m | January 15, 2010 7:33 PM |
Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2010 19:33
12. Posted by jim m | January 15, 2010 7:51 PM | Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Obama is coming to bring out the black vote?! Great! Did anyone bother to tell him that this is not Chicago? Illinois is 15% black and Chicago is 35%. Compare that to Massachusetts (~8%) and Boston (24%).
You're just not going to have the impact on the vote here. And Coakley is not an easy sell for the black community here. Obama coming to town at the last minute and saying, "Vote for the detached, imperial bitch because I tell you to" just isn't going to inspire people to rush to the polls. Saying it will help pass healthcare will likely suppress her turn out.
12. Posted by jim m | January 15, 2010 7:51 PM |
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2010 19:51
13. Posted by epador | January 15, 2010 8:13 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
I wonder if the O man will continue to bat 000.
13. Posted by epador | January 15, 2010 8:13 PM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2010 20:13
14. Posted by davidt | January 15, 2010 9:00 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
"Senate Can Pass Health With 51 Votes, Van Hollen Says"
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aPg2UfFaCh9c&pos=9
via Drudge
14. Posted by davidt | January 15, 2010 9:00 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2010 21:00
15. Posted by jim m | January 15, 2010 9:06 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
In order to pass healthcare via reconciliation they need to get it through a conference committee. Currently the GOP is refusing to appoint members to such a committee so, unless the dems are going to completely trash the way the legislative branch of the federal government functions, there won't be any bill coming through reconciliation.
The dems suggested they would try to pass healthcare this way and if they had kept their mouths shut they might have succeeded.
Currently they are trying to cobble together a compromise bill that can pass both houses without modification. If reconciliation were really an option they wouldn't be trying to do this.
15. Posted by jim m | January 15, 2010 9:06 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2010 21:06
16. Posted by jim m | January 15, 2010 9:43 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
How bad is it for Coakley? They just came out of a commercial break on the #1 sports talk radio station and they played her gaffe from the debate where she says there are no more terrorists in Afghanistan. When the audio is done they come on laughing and say that the statement should be an automatic disqualifier.
She's toast. She's being continuously mocked on the radio and not just by conservatives.
16. Posted by jim m | January 15, 2010 9:43 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on January 15, 2010 21:43
17. Posted by pat6270 | January 16, 2010 3:04 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Coakley Campaign Checklist:
1) Claim Afghanistan is clear of terrorists
2) Belittle opponent for shaking hands with home town sports fans
3) Insult hometown sports fans
4) Misspell home state while doing all of the above
5) Insult home town sports hero
6) Alienate every Catholic home town voter
...Checklist complete
17. Posted by pat6270 | January 16, 2010 3:04 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 16, 2010 03:04
18. Posted by Jeff | January 16, 2010 11:34 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Were Obama goes nothing grows. Lets send Washington a hearing aid, SCOTT BROWN!
18. Posted by Jeff | January 16, 2010 11:34 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 16, 2010 11:34