Tim Kaine Details Lessons Learned From Coakley Loss, Talks Mid-Term Election Strategy (VIDEO)

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show Tuesday to talk about the party's strategy for the midterm elections. He predicted that the party would "do better than people expect."

The former Virginia governor confirmed that the Democratic party will focus on three things as part of their midterm election strategy: good candidate recruitment, the passage of health care reform, and Republican hypocrisy. Kaine also said that the party needs to push for legislation that will help the economy. He told Maddow that it was "critical" that Democrats pass health care reform.

When asked about what the party learned from Martha Coakley's failed bid for Ted Kennedy's former Senate seat, Kaine acknowledged problems with the Coakley campaign and said that there were lessons for the party: Democrats should not treat a campaign's self-assessment as fact:

"When a candidate says, 'Hey, look, this race is going fine. We're in great shape,' we need to check under the hood and we need to make our own assessment ... Candidly ... we should have started earlier.

Kaine went on to say that there were issues about "messaging" and with the way Coakley's campaign communicated.

WATCH:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Comments

[RedWhiteandBlueState]

07:29 PM on 02/27/2010

Is it just me or have we entered a world of non-stop 24 hour campaigning? Didn't there used to be a brief period of governing in between elections?

[Yikes11]

05:45 PM on 02/17/2010

Hey Mr. DNC Chairman, how's that Bunker you've been hanging out in for the last year working out for you? Do you know who Michael Steele is? Do your job, champion the dems cause.

[Growl1972]

04:35 PM on 02/17/2010

lol..

Yeah, lesson learned:

'Oh No! We've been discovered as a radical left agenda! America doesn't want to buy what we've been trying to sell, and never will. Let's just say the GOP is mean!'

Here's another lesson:

Hertz, Penske, U-Haul...all listed in the yellow pages or online...better reserve your trucks for a move soon!

[ErikW65]

10:11 AM on 02/17/2010

Why can't Democratic and liberal political analysts admit that the Coakley loss was due largely to the anger over the hypocrisy of Washington helping Wall Street with no strings attached or pain suffered, while Main Street did not share in the jobless "recovery" (much less profits and bonses!)?

I guess it's easy to throw Coakley under the bus because she did such a lousy job, but the failure to recognize political reality can't bode well for the left.

When President Obama took office, he warned the left that they would have to force him to do what they wanted, they would have have to pull him to the left. The Dems haven't done that. And it's helped result in this skewing of the perceived political spectrum to the right.

I understand the Gates reappointment. But the Bernanke/ Summers/ Geithner decisions were toxic cronyism to the progressive left. And once the right managed to find a way to co-opt that anger as faux-populism, the numbers of disgusted voters from both ends of the spectrum converged. That's the way I see it.

[theyedster]

09:28 AM on 02/17/2010

People wanted Dems to do what they were elected to do rather than find every reason under the Sun not to.

Kaine had a swing and a miss.

[AgathaX]

08:52 AM on 02/17/2010

The only lesson that the Democrats need to learn is that policy positions don't win elections, being able to articulate policy in a compelling way and charisma win elections. The media doesn't help anything, always declaring elections to be a referendum on this or that. And frankly, I don't think voters are really so self aware that they can adequately describe why they voted one way or another.

While the party might have been able to make a difference after Coakley's campaign was in full swing, when it really could have made a difference is before she got the nomination with less the half the vote against a crowded field of unknowns. This has been a problem many times--including in the recent Virginia governor's race.

I would make David Plouffe, Axelrod and others with demonstrated campaign success available to counsel ALL candidates in democratic primaries whose views are in line with key Democratic positions. And I would require that no one be the democratic candidate for any Senate seat or Governor's office unless they have won over 50% of the vote in a primary runoff. Too expensive? I'm willing to let people vote on-line or by mail. Bottom line: Democrats need better mentoring of new candidates and a more rigorous process for selecting candidates.

[Paddy999]

08:42 AM on 02/17/2010

Blue Clothes Pins! Vote Democratic 2010!! What a concept.

[want2run527]

08:27 AM on 02/17/2010

You'd think that after a year of being bashed by the Republicans that he have a stronger message and a greater confidence=resolve which would have been evident in this interview. He doesn't. Almost as if he is playing with us just as much as the obstructionist are. Had a "just say something/anything they will never notice" feel to it.

[Tanyars5]

08:22 AM on 02/17/2010

WAIT WAIT WAIT
I watched Rachel Maddow last night and she called out Glen Beck. Why is that clip not up???????

[georgewetherill]

08:30 AM on 02/17/2010

I believe it was over a global warming comment which is irrelavent now since the lead scientist has come out and pretty much debunked the whole damn thing. But i know it wont stop the left on pushing cap-n-trade. Just like healthcare reform in its current form, the majority dont want it.

Meadows just sounds more and more like Olbermans "Worst person in the world".

How childish.

[Tanyars5]

08:34 AM on 02/17/2010

It is childish to send threats of violence to people on TV. I don't like the entire fox channel but would not spend a minute of my time sending them threats.

[Inquisitr]

08:50 AM on 02/17/2010

"the lead scientist"

who pray tell is "the lead scientist" on climate change? Where is the department of climate change located for one to be its leader?

I'll wait

[repuglycon]

08:18 AM on 02/17/2010

Aren't there two elephants in the room named Harry Reid and Ben Nelson?

[repuglycon]

08:56 AM on 02/17/2010

On second thought, based on the way we're going, there must be 8-10 corporatist democratic elephants in the room.

[newunderground]

08:16 AM on 02/17/2010

Timmy is no Howard Dean, that's for sure. He's a failure as party chairman.

[gun1934]

08:35 AM on 02/17/2010

when obama went up to give the speech for coakley--thats what turned off the vote for coakley--people just dont want obama

[theyedster]

09:25 AM on 02/17/2010

I call BS.

[Lexie]

09:27 AM on 02/17/2010

Ya know what -- it's a little more complicated than that.

[littlemonster]

08:16 AM on 02/17/2010

i learned a lesson from watching this interview: we need howard dean back. bad. sorry to keep beating a dead horse.

[georgewetherill]

08:37 AM on 02/17/2010

I wish he was chair again. The man is a progressive /libral and we know how most of the country feels about that.

Mr. Dean, i would welcome your return with open arms.

[Pennsylvanianne]

08:45 AM on 02/17/2010

Actually, his correct title is Dr. Dean, as Howard Dean is a physician, and yes, I agree with you completely. Dr. Dean was dynamic as chair. Bring back the doc!

[Dave4ObamaSinceDay1]

03:36 PM on 02/17/2010

You can bring back any ultra liberal you want to head the Dem party but that never translates into viable liberal candidates especiallyu in the Senate where they may be needed..... Liberals don't have the will of their convictions; however, the tea baggers do... How pathetic...

[toochie]

09:15 AM on 02/17/2010

Dean in 2012. Forget the DNC. Kaine wants to know of any new Republican ideas. The newest one is to stick it up sideways this time.

[DannyEV]

08:15 AM on 02/17/2010

I'm delighted to hear about the strategy includes pointing out republican hypocrisy.

What are they doing to do about democrats' hypocrisy, i.e., posing as the party of the interests of working people while voting against us after taking all that $$ from the financial service industry, insurance companies, pharm, etc, etc, & etc.? How about THAT hypocrisy?

[toochie]

09:17 AM on 02/17/2010

Come on, Dan. With Washington being broken, you are expecting too much.

[bassface49]

09:47 AM on 02/17/2010

you mean acting like 'republicans'?
That is hypocrisy...

[DannyEV]

02:25 PM on 02/17/2010

yeh. THAT hypocrisy.

[Patriotallday]

08:13 AM on 02/17/2010

Demos are jumping from a sinking Obama ship! What happened in Mass was voter outrage over a very unpopular government run health bill that Demos were still trying to force thru despite the anger shown in the Town Hall meetings. And it didn't help that Pelosi and other Demos called main street concerned citizens "crazy, Nazis" among other names. The Demos and even some Republicans are going to pay a heavy price this November, as attention should be on the economy, the high unemployment, and the out of control national debt which is destroying our currency and our savings. Vote the incumbents out! How could someone new do any worse than this gang of career criminals?

[georgewetherill]

08:11 AM on 02/17/2010

I stood about 15 minutes of her last nite and that was all i could bare.

Her new mission is to "embareass" the republicans.

What a tool. Even with her education thats all she can come up with.

She has never sounded so foolish.

Her and Olbernanns ratings combined are an embaressment.

Their lucky they have big far left money proping up the network or they would have been done long ago!

[newunderground]

08:17 AM on 02/17/2010

Oh yeah, GE is well known for it's progressive values! LOL

[georgewetherill]

08:22 AM on 02/17/2010

Why the hell do you people still think progressiveness is popular. Its a dream you have that country is going to turn on normalcy and going completely insane.

Howard Dean would be president when pigs fly.

[Tanyars5]

08:24 AM on 02/17/2010

She called out the fox tool Beck last night. She called him out as a liar and told him to BACKOFF.