Some Thoughts on the Mass Senate Race

With Tuesday's special election to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy just around the corner (and the Cowboy's game not until tomorrow), I thought it appropriate to add my two cents on the Bay State senate race.

The most astonishing aspect of the Mass election is that it merits comment at all. The conventional wisdom of each and every pundit at the start of the year was that the race would, and should be, a slam dunk for the Dems.

That state senator Scott Brown has made it a race at all speaks to the serious political problem facing the Dems this fall.

To wit, the logic follows that if the Dems can't win a Senate seat in deep, deep, deep blue Massachusetts, where can they win? Add to that a host of centrist Dems opting for retirement and a federal pension, rather than a bruising reelection campaign and flagging popularity, suddenly one starts to smell a political tsunami in the air.

To say the Dems are panicked would be an understatement. A Democrat President shouldn't have to campaign in Massachusetts.

Ever.

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From my own part, having lived in Boston for nearly two years, I just don't see Brown pulling this out. Mass is way too liberal to elect a politician like Brown.

Of course, I lived near Cambridge. And even by liberal standards, Cambridge is far from representative of the entire state.

History also counters that, Mass tends to appreciate the odd fiscal conservative. This is the state that elected Willard "Mitt" Romney after all. And to his credit, Scott Brown has run nearly a perfect campaign, championing economic issues and spending, rather than social issues and defense- clear loser issues in a state like Mass.

Naturally, others have made the case that Brown doesn't need to win in order to paint the Dems as frazzled. And this is mostly true.

The fact is Scott Brown has already exceeded expectations.


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