“And so, one year later, Democrats are scurrying to figure out ways to salvage the Kennedy seat and health reform, in the event Coakley loses. They could, some say, push through reform before the Republican is seated. Or have the House pass an untouched version of the Senate bill, so no additional vote is necessary in the Senate. Or they could just lose — which, after a year of hand-to-hand combat on reform, seems almost unimaginable.
The choices are bad: Give up on reform and look like a disorganized, weak majority. Or push through reform and look like a corrupt, desperate and arrogant majority.
No good choices. Which is why the president campaigned for Martha Coakley on Sunday — and desperately needs her to win.”
It’s also fascinating how much finger-pointing is going on now. The Democratic *leadership* wants to frame this race as one in which Coakley just ran a poor campaign. But as has become their habit of late, I think the Dems are acting in denial. To paraphrase James Carville, “It’s the agenda, stupid.” Folks wanted *change* (personally, I’ve been ready for *change* ever since Bush was elected!), but that didn’t mean that they wanted a big government take over of their lives and Obama in their living room rearranging their furniture. What happened in VA and NJ last Fall and what is happening in MA today is a clear signal not that MA leadership is failing, but Democratic national leadership is failing:
“The Coakley campaign is bridling at finger-pointing from the White House and Washington Democrats, and an outside adviser to the campaign has provided to POLITICO a memo aimed at rebutting the charge that Coakley failed and making the case that national Democrats failed her. The adviser, who made the case to my colleague Jonathan Martin on the condition of anonymity in response, he said, to “the current leaking coming out of the White House and the DNC that is chalking all of this up to a “bad candidate”.
The adviser, who cited internal polling numbers to make the case, e-mails that, “There’s more to the story than that. If Martha is guilty of taking the race for granted, so is the White House and the DNC.”
The adviser pointed to internal polling to argue that Coakley held a wide — 20 point — lead on Dec. 19, and that the damage she took between that survey and a Jan. 5 Rasmussen poll putting the race at 9 points came from the national scene: The Senate vote on health care, with the controversy over Ben Nelson’s deal for Nebraska, and the Christmas Day bombing.”
The question now is: Is anyone on the Obama team paying attention and learning – or will their own arrogrance and hurbis hurl them over a cliff like Wiley Coyote?
