Israel Matzav

Why Scott Brown won

This is a bit off topic, but it's too good not to post. It came to me in an email from Michael Fenenbock, who worked for Senator Ted Kennedy in the 1980's (see below):

My take on the Mass Senate race.

Yes, it had ramifications for health care. Yes, it was a referendum on President Obama’s first year. But I think those are secondary.

The election was about Coakley and what she represented. An elitist, lefty, arrogant, overbearing former AG, who thought she was entitled to the seat. And someone so lame and out of touch she thought Curt Schilling was a Yankees fan. Oy.

The race turned for good when, during the debate, the supercilious David Gergen asked Brown, “Are you willing … to say, … ‘I'm going to sit in Teddy Kennedy's seat and I'm going to be the person who's going to block [healthcare reform] for another 15 years’?”

“It’s not the Kennedys' seat,” Brown responded, “and it’s not the Democrats' seat; it's the people's seat.” (The backdrop for Brown’s victory speech Tuesday night trumpeted the words THE PEOPLE’S SEAT.)

An elitist to her bones, Ms. Coakley didn’t do much to hide her views. The “little” people are not worth shaking hands with, those who practice religion are dupes, the tea party folks are “Nazis” and Ms. Coakley knows what’s best for us.

She is a personification of what happens to the Democratic Party when it ditches its populist instinct in favor of lefty ideology, interest groups, and goofs like Koz.

And lurking in the shadows this election was about race.

A white Cambridge cop doing his job, a self-important Black Harvard professor, and a President lacking political impulse control.

Rick Pitino, the great basketball coach, had a pointed quote some years back, “Race is always an issue in America.” Uh huh.

Much has been said and written about “independents” in this election. But Brown took home a quarter of the Democratic Party vote. And I wonder if that isn’t a more telling marker.

During Senator Edward M. Kennedy's 1980 presidential campaign, Fenenbock was tabbed as Deputy Western States Coordinator, before moving to Washington, DC where he joined Senator Kennedy’s national campaign staff and helped coordinate efforts at the 1980 Democratic national convention in New York City.

In 1982, Fenenbock also became Senator Edward Kennedy’s political director. In that capacity he headed the Senator’s political operation at the 1982 Democratic mini-Convention in Philadelphia.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:46 PM