Looks like CHOKE-ley is going to blow another one in Massachusetts

[BlueDemKev]

Rasmussen now has Martha Coakley tied with Baker. What were Mass. Democrats thinking insofar as putting her up as their candidate after the shitty campaign she ran which resulted in Ted Kennedy's seat going over to Playgirl Centerfold star Scott Brown!?!

[RadicalGeek]

1. Lest we Forget

That Brown's seat later went to Warren.

(Of course if she'd have run in the 1st place. . . )

[bigdarryl]

2. Democrats like losing

[MADem]

3. Rasmussen isn't the be-all or the end-all. nt

[TeamPooka]

4. Sucker believe Rasmussen polls. nt

[beerandjesus]

5. It's all Nader's fault.

Couldn't POSSIBLY be a Democrat's.

[WI_DEM]

6. Boston Globe also shows a tight race...

Coakley Holds Slim Lead in Massachusetts
A new Boston Globe poll in Massachusetts finds Martha Coakley (D) barely leads Charlie Baker in the race for governor, 39% to 36% with 19% of likely voters undecided.

[Arkana]

7. Not entirely her fault--Baker's good at hiding his crazy

and Massachusetts likes electing asshole Republican governors despite an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature.

She's got a good chance of winning but anyone who thought it'd be a blowout was fooling themselves.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

8. Rasmussen? Don't you know better? That means she's 15 points ahead.

Show me a PPP poll that has her tied, then I'll start worrying.

[RBInMaine]

9. Just chill down. She and her team learned well from the last time. There are changes.

But remember, they have a history of electing many RePUKE governors there, and they've just had 8 years of a Dem. So it should be close. But if the Dems and Coakley do their work, they should be ok.

[Rowdyboy]

10. I've never understood how "liberal" state like Massachusetts, Coonnecticut, and New Jersey routinely

elect asshole Republicans to national office. Here in "teabag loving" Mississippi we don't elect liberal Democrats-ever. Nor do they in Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina, Utah, Idaho and all the other slime holes that are the backbone of the Republican party. They might once in a great while elect a conservative Dem but NEVER a liberal.

How is it that the ignorant southerners and westerners show more cohesion in their voting than our brothers and sisters in the supposedly sane east and Midwest?

[Hippo_Tron]

11. Red states routinely elect Democratic governors

Arkansas, West Virginia, Montana, and Kentucky all have Democratic Governors. Alabama had one who lost in 2002 and Mississippi had one who lost in 2003. Wyoming had one up until 2010. Kansas had one and then Obama appointed her to the cabinet, same with Arizona. And it actually looks like Kansas may get a Dem governor this year because Brownback is so unpopular.

People are more willing to be bipartisan in voting for state offices than for federal offices. Scott Brown's election to the Senate in Massachusetts was an anomaly that was corrected in the next election.

[Rowdyboy]

12. But can you find a liberal among those "Democratic" governors? Mississippi's Ronnie Musgrove was at

best a moderate conservative (though certainly the lesser of two evils). Kentucky's Beshear and Kansas' Sebelius are probably the most moderate of the bunch. Certainly Beebe in Arkansas, Nixon of Missouri and Hodges of South Carolina would rank as center-right. That's not trash-talking them-I would happily vote for any one of them. But states like Massachusetts, Oregon, Connecticut and New Jersey should all be slam dunks for Democrats. They have educated electorates, unlike in the south and they don't have nearly the overwhelming biblical culture.

We should be able to spend our campaign to play in more of the border states instead of fighting to hold onto Massachusetts etc. Instead, Democrats wind up stuck with assholes like Andrew Cuomo who would make a fine governor for Missouri or North Carolina. But a bastion of progressivism like New York? We should be able to do much better.

[Hippo_Tron]

14. Blue state GOP Governors are more moderate than red state GOP Governors generally

Remember, Romney had to basically pretend that his tenure as Massachusetts never happened in order to get out of the Republican primary. There are a few recent exceptions, but mostly it hasn't worked out. Tom Corbett has tried to govern Pennsylvania like Alabama and he's going to get tossed on his ass in November for it.

Christie is the only one who has really managed to hold most of his party's mainstream positions and still be popular in a blue state. But New Jersey isn't a super blue state, remember John Kerry had to spend money at the last minute to hold it in 2004. And yes, we are generally much worse at getting liberals elected in blue states than Republicans are at getting conservatives elected in red states. But that's a whole different problem.

The sheer fact is that even in the most conservative or most liberal states, people will get tired of the people running their government and toss them out. But they're generally going to toss them out in favor of a moderate from the other party, not an ideologue who completely disagrees with them on everything.

As for why we're fighting to hold on to Massachusetts and can't fight in more of the border states, it's because it's a midterm election with a Democratic President. There's no getting around the inherent fact that those elections are bad for the party in power.

[Rowdyboy]

15. One of your points hits particularly hard here. EVERYONE is so for term limits until election day

Then they routinely re-elect the same dough-faced middle aged Republican "bidnessmen" who've held the office for the last 10 years. After 36 years Thad Freaking Cochran will win again easily over a former pretty conservative Democrat in a state that screams about term limits.

And, yes, mid-term elections have been pretty predictable for decades now. I have direct memories back to 1970 but from what I know of history that trend is pretty well ingrained back to Teddy Roosevelt at least. Only when the Republicans overreached and impeached Clinton did they lose a few seats in the 1998 off-year race. Maybe once under FDR (the more years since college the worse my memory gets)

[EEO]

13. As a Rhode Island liberal I am still disgusted Ted Kennedy's seat went to Scott Brown...

who is now a carpetbagger in New Hampshire. Coakley is a joke and she worked hard to lose that senate seat. Reed and Whitehouse are okay. When are you other states going to start electing liberal democrats?

[Marrah_G]

16. ugh