My response to today’s POLITICO Arena open mic topic – the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race. Note: The posting on POLITICO’s site doesn’t include hyperlinks, so I’ve directed Twitter followers and Facebook friends here.
A victory by Scott Brown in Tuesday’s U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts could set off a Republican tidal wave that washes incumbent Democrats from office all across the country. Consider this – Democrats in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts enjoy an enormous advantage in voter registration. As of Election Day 2008, only 11.6 percent of Massachusetts voters were registered as Republicans. Additionally, President Obama received a remarkable 72 percent more votes than John McCain in the 2008 election.
The conventional wisdom David Gergen repeated as moderator of the final debate – that this is “Ted Kennedy’s seat” – has been rejected by a popular uprising of voters. The people of Massachusetts appear to be poised to take the seat back by sending an unambiguous message of disapproval with the out of control spending and government expansion flowing out of Congress this year.
In addition to ensuring the unpopular Obama health care plan is stopped in its tracks, Brown’s victory would demonstrate there is very little job security for Democratic incumbents who’ve supported massive new spending and are up for reelection this year. Some may consider Washington state (where I live) safe for Democrats, but Obama carried the state by just 17 percent and national polls demonstrate his support has dropped dramatically. A recent poll showed only 23 percent would definitely vote to reelect Obama if the 2012 election was held today. So, the Brown victory would show that an articulate and upbeat candidate like Chris Widener in Washington state, who focuses heavily on restoring fiscal sanity to our government, has a very real shot at defeating U.S. Senator Patty Murray in November. Surely, a Republican win in Massachusetts would force political pundits to reexamine every race in the country for similar signs of voter revolt as many Democratic incumbents could find themselves joining the 10 percent of Americans who are unemployed.
I am hopeful that Scott Brown wins the senate seat on Tuesday. This will give conservatives and U.S. citizens with common sense an opportunity to defeat mafiacare once and for all and to save this wonderful nation from certain ruin.
Let’s hope you are right about a red wave washing over Massachusetts and here in Washington. Ousting Patty Murray-who was rated back at the beginning of the millennium as being was one of the dimmest light bulbs in congress would be a start at breaking the lock the Democrats have on Washington state.
But keep in mind, the Democrats from Obama down to the MA Secretary of State will do their best to make sure Scott Brown if he wins, is delayed in being seated. They will throw the kitchen sink at him before they certify the results. Hopefully he will win decisively, to prevent a recount. You know from experience here in Washington how Democrats find votes from thin air.
Interestingly, the MA Dems re-wrote laws to him the governor powers of senatorial appointment and they fast tracked Paul Kirk to be seated to ensure they kept the 60 votes. Democrats have now mentioned the reconciliation process to pass health care should Brown win
I pray that Scott Brown wins but my head tells me that this will be a close race and we will not know the winner until the absentee ballots are counted. Can you imagine what that will be like? Ballots locked up in a room, just sitting there waiting to be counted. I’m sure ACORN will have a key to that room, and some union thugs will manage to get a few thousand extra ballots put into the count. Massachusetts is FULL of elected Democrats in the highest elected offices and it is obvious to me that they will not allow the Republican to win. I’m sure that Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow have already created fictitious stories of Republican evil-doings in the race so that they can justify prolonging the count until the Health Care bill is voted on. Brown must be 6-8% ahead on the night of the election or else the democrats will find a way to steal this from him – they have too much to lose and for many of them this is still Ted Kennedy’s seat and their sense of entitlement far outweighs their need to accept the will of the people.
To me this feels like a case of the press over-reporting how much of a threat Mr. Brown is in order to gin up the anti-conservative vote, especially given the voter registration numbers.
I hope that I am wrong.
Given the sheer amount of destruction to the fabric of this country Mr. Kennedy’s occupancy has done, seeing even a moderate democrat elected at this point would feel like a step in the right direction.