In light of the recent news concerning Brown (R) vs. Coakley (D), I get the feeling that Massachusetts isn’t the Land of the Kennedys any more? Well, Patrick Kennedy still thinks the seat belongs to his family.
But I think the good people of Massachusetts are ready to move on. Is the Coakley camp on self implosion countdown?
Here in Massachusetts, as well as in Washington, a growing sense of gloom is setting in among Democrats about the fortunes of Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley. “I have heard that in the last two days the bottom has fallen out of her poll numbers,” says one well-connected Democratic strategist. In her own polling, Coakley is said to be around five points behind Republican Scott Brown. “If she’s not six or eight ahead going into the election, all the intensity is on the other side in terms of turnout,” the Democrat says. “So right now, she is destined to lose.”
Nightmares of the gubernatorial race in Virginia resurface among Democrats:
Given those numbers, some Democrats, eager to distance Obama from any electoral failure, are beginning to compare Coakley to Creigh Deeds, the losing Democratic candidate in the Virginia governor’s race last year. Deeds ran such a lackluster campaign, Democrats say, that his defeat could be solely attributed to his own shortcomings, and should not be seen as a referendum on President Obama’s policies or those of the national Democratic party.
The same sort of thinking is emerging in Massachusetts. “This is a Creigh Deeds situation,” the Democrat says. “I don’t think it says that the Obama agenda is a problem. I think it says, 1) that she’s a terrible candidate, 2) that she ran a terrible campaign, 3) that the climate is difficult but she should have been able to overcome it, and 4) that Democrats beware — you better run good campaigns, or you’re going to lose.”
It’s nice to see that Democrats are ready to sling mud at their candidates in order to protect the president. Who could blame them? With poll numbers inching below 50%, President Obama may need all the protection available.
Will Coakley pull a Deeds? That’s probably on the minds of many Democrats and Republicans over this weekend.
