Dems Will Have To Account For Brown Blueprint In 2010

Over the past year, I sensed that the Democrats were basically gaming out the 2010 election like so: the right was mired in an Establishment-versus-Tea Party battle for identity, that fissure was going to divide their voters and this would mitigate the losses that history typically doles out to the party in power in the first off-year election of a presidency. If there is a "national" lesson in the Massachusetts Senate race, it's that Scott Brown has put forth a new campaign blueprint for which the Democrats will have to account.

Alex Pareene captures it thusly:

What is worrying, if you happen to be liberally inclined, is that the morons basically did figure out how to win this one: Brown didn't run as a white resentment-fueled paranoid teabagger. The white populist rage-addict paranoid teabaggers make up his base, and they raised all his money, and they turned out for all his rallies, but Brown did not sound like Those Nuts when the cameras were on. He didn't even actually run as a Conservative. He ran as, literally, a Kennedy, maybe the next John Kennedy, who was also sick of those Kennedys thinking the Kennedy seat was the Kennedy seat. (Whatever, coherency is not actually a virtue in any political campaign.)

The whole point of the slow, miserable collapse of the GOP into warring factions looking to expel various traitors from the tent was supposed to be that they wouldn't fully capitalize on this perfect once-in-a-decade confluence of pro-opposition party factors. 'Cause, you know, they would run a whole bunch of Jim DeMints and Michele Bachmanns in Purple Districts, scaring grandma and anyone else who isn't convinced Obama is going to arm Haitian refugees and train them in disarming and enslaving White Folks.

But no, the Teabaggers repressed their natural instincts to support the craziest available candidate, and instead settled on a tall, handsome naked guy who is able to stand on a truck and say pleasant things.

Now, the basic argument against this is, "Sure, that's a plausible scenario in Massachusetts, maybe, where a Bachmann-esque campaign would have failed anyway." My counter-argument would be, "Sure, but up until yesterday it was the campaign Scott Brown was running that people thought was implausible."

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Comments

[jsgaetano]

12:07 PM on 01/21/2010

It's still shocking how little facts enter into the analysis of this race, even among people who ordinarily should know better.

Coakley lost because Dems didn't come out and vote for her. End of story. Among the voters who voted for Obama in 2008, only 18% voted for Coakley. The rest either voted for someone else... but most just stayed home.

There was likewise a tug-of-war going on between the east and west parts of the state, and Coakley had also previously made disparaging remarks about Boston. So right from the start, most Bostonians weren't going to support her. Want proof of this? Look at how little GOTV effort there was in Eastern Mass.

And all things considered, all Brownie is doing is keeping the seat warm until he gets replaced by a Dem in 2012, assuming E and W Mass can work out their differences.

But I'll bet one thing- the next Dem candidate won't start out their campaign by urinating on the Boston area.

[AnnfromCA]

10:53 AM on 01/21/2010

This article articulates perfectly why the message will work right into 2010. "The morons" blah, blah.

Amazing to me from a political view, but then I have to keep in mind that arrogance and its expression is not really political, it's a character flaw.

[jsgaetano]

12:10 PM on 01/21/2010

The shocking arrogance on display between 2000 and 2008 is precisely why the GOP can't win elections any longer.

Brown didn't win- Democrats weren't supporting their candidate. In 2012, when the real election is held, Brown will likely only have a future at Fox News (assuming Beck stops trying to stuff his sack down Brown's throat).

[patsydecline]

09:27 AM on 01/21/2010

====

great cartoon from the uk...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/cartoon/2010/jan/21/scott-brown-senate-win

[Skygazer]

04:59 AM on 01/21/2010

You really can't underestimate the arrogance and elitism and just general unlike-ability that Coakley was able to convey.

The blueprint still stands, it has to stand because if there's one thing the teabaggers and extreme right is sharpening their knives for is the much loathed mythical RINO and they will demand "ideological purity."

MA doesn't have enough TEabaggers, who can vote who would worry about the guys obviously moderate stance. But, plenty of teabaggers gave money and flew in to help out any way they could, because, and this is scary, they decided to be pragmatists and get the great revolution they envision going. Also they hate this President and Congress with the intensity of a thousand suns.

November is going to be about who can generate more intensity. And this WH must must must start breaking heads in Congress, On wall street, and on the loony right. As well as get job growth. IF that happens the intensity and loyalty of the Progs and Libs and Dem Mods, as well as Blue dogs will be a pretty good set up for a true, filibuster proof majority, by the strategy needs to be clear and the ideological purity weakness needs to be hit again and again and again ad infinitum. It needs to be the number one tool.

[chomedey]

01:54 AM on 01/21/2010

this guy will be oust by Mass soon

[patsydecline]

08:43 PM on 01/20/2010

########========
a man/child who should be in time out not the senate....

State Senator Scott Brown, . . . had a "meltdown" in front of 80 King Philip's High School students at a student assembly. Brown had asked to speak to the students because he felt he had been "abused" by student detractors from King's Philip High School who made fun of him on their student run internet chatroom, "facebook."

At the assembly in King Phillip's High School auditorium, State Senator Brown called each student out, one by one, using curse words that every mother would be horrified to hear and would've covered their children's ears if they were there. Above the protests of all the teachers who were aghast at the state Senator's anti-social behavior and foul language, Brown refused to stop his child-like tirade calling each student out one by one in great pleasure.

http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/2007/03/02/massachusetts_state_senator_scott_brown?blog=119

[liberalOrgonian]

08:20 PM on 01/20/2010

What shocks me about the Brown win is the fact he posed nude for a centerfold.
Had a woman done this she would have been humiliated and laughed out of politics.
Surprised Mass would vote this way, such a double standard.

How hung is this guy?

[patsydecline]

08:44 PM on 01/20/2010

agreed....

[FoonTheElder]

05:43 PM on 01/20/2010

It will be the typical Republican campaign strategy.

-Hide what you really support, but complain loudly about your opponents positions.
-Run against health reform because it costs too much, while at the same time supporting the current system which taxes Americans twice as much as any other system and wastes $1 trillion per year
-Tell the voters that you are against the economic policies of your opponents when your economic policy consists of deficit increasing trickle down tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations
-Be sure to line up the corporate media, supported by big corporate dollars-after all you really work for the big corporations.
-Perpetual wars are the true test of patriotism and are the only way to 'support the troops' and wars don't really cost taxpayers any money, they are magically paid for.
-Cut taxes on investments in aftermarket stocks and foreign investments and then tell people how this will get them good paying jobs.
-Be pro-life, while at the same time killing 40,000 people per year with your health care policies.
-Depend on 'duhmerricuns to buy your lies again hook, line and sinker.

[Ouidah]

05:40 PM on 01/20/2010

So he won a place holder election for two plus years. In twenty four months he will be back fighting for his temporary senate seat. Those of you, who stayed home and did not vote, shame on you.
I too am angry at the kid glove treatment that the president has been given the thieves on Wall Street. I want a strong Public Option in the Health Care Bill, but I won’t protest by staying home or voting for the enemy.

That is just plain stupid.

I don’t believe that those so called Independents are any more independent than Sarah Palin. They are all closet Teabaggers.

[chomedey]

01:56 AM on 01/21/2010

agree they just turn tea bagger

[KenClay]

05:34 PM on 01/20/2010

An Independent! Don't Be Fooled..... He Saying his daughters are available? For What? He is against same sex marriage! Against most woman's rights! Independent.... hmmmmmm! Interesting Who gets the daughters ? the highest bidder?

[chelliza]

05:46 PM on 01/20/2010

He also voted against funding to help the people from his state who helped NY after the 9/11 attacks because the budget couldn't afford it, while pushing for funding for a golf course in his district. What a guy! He is all about the middle class.

[Tags]

05:17 PM on 01/20/2010

Wouldn't it be awesome if Brown turned out to be a Lieberman analog for the Republicans?

After all, he is from Massachusetts. and he owes his win to independents...

[17ladyslippers]

05:20 PM on 01/20/2010

Wishin' and hopein'...

[FoonTheElder]

05:46 PM on 01/20/2010

He'll be more like Mitt Romney Jr.

[Cinnamonape]

05:10 PM on 01/20/2010

Okay- take his chief talking point away. Stop pandering to the insurance, banking, drug and military contract industries.

Hey how about pushing for a Constitutional amendment that states that "Only citizens can contribute to a partisan political campaign, and may do so only as individuals. No citizen may contribute more than $2000 to a candidate, nor more than $20,000 in an election cycle."

No PACS, no Swiftboaters, no other pooling of funds. No free advertising by media sources, or some wealthy media magnate pumping millions through surrogates into a campaign.

[pammeltz]

05:08 PM on 01/20/2010

I think we have just had a preview of the 2012 Republican Ticket. It will consist of a former beauty queen and a former Cosmo centerfold. The only question will be ..."who will be on top"... of the ticket.

[StillIRise]

05:02 PM on 01/20/2010

First of all, Coakley was not a good candidate. It should matter to all of us, on the right and the left, the character of the people that we elect to represent us, and from what I've read, heard and seen about Coakley, she was not someone even I - as a Democrat - would have wanted to vote for.

Secondly, considering how faithfully some on the left have chipped away at the morale of the party since November 5, 2008, I'm not surprised that some Democrats are beginning to feel less than enthusiastic about engaging in party politics. It's unfortunate, but it's an outcome that doesn't surprise me.

Third, the party took the election for granted and left a lot of gaping holes unattended. When the GOP and the teabaggers saw the holes, they crawled right in, and no one was there to stop them ... which leads to the question I've been asking myself and others over the last few days: Where is Tim Kaine??

When the Republicans lost the NY 23 or were in trouble in other elections, all eyes were on the RNC chair, Michael Steele. But not once have I heard anyone talk about Tim Kaine, and his responsibility in all of this.

I realize that the trend is to simply blame Obama for everything, but isn't Kaine still the DNC chair? Isn't he still working? Doesn't he deserve at least as much attention as Michael Steele gets for his election wins and losses?

[duhtruth]

05:00 PM on 01/20/2010

They will have to account for Brown the way they did for Palin. Like all of sudden this dude is on a par with Obama. What a BANANA REPUBLIC we have become.