Josh Marshall: A Few Takeaways From Tonight’s Result

[MADem]

34. I can tell you how he managed it!

MA has an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature, that wields a lot of clout. We could elect Attila the Hun and manage to keep him in line. We have a "weak governor" system where the governor can't get much done without "getting along" with the legislature. During Mittsy's era, we had a somewhat overreaching legislature, with some loudmouths in local/state politics who sometimes got a bit rambunctious, and Mitt's opponent was someone I liked, personally, but she wasn't resonating with the public at large--unfortunately, MA is, despite some Blue credentials, a bit of a slow-to-adapt state in some regards, and one of them is women in top elective offices--the old saw about them having to be twice as good to get half the credit is unfortunately valid, here. Also, the primary losers didn't go out of their way to throw their support/machines her way--it was kind of shitty.

He also had a ton of money, and he LIED, LIED, LIED on the incessant ads he put up. He used his "Olympics experience" and his company-destroying reputation at Bain to suggest that he had the management brains to bring jobs to the state. The best commercial (and by best, I mean most craven) was him, standing in front of a plainly "CHRISTIAN" church (and by that I mean the kind you see in Hollywood movies, in a grassy glen, white clapboards, big huge new England steeple with a cross on top), in impossibly bright sunlight under a technicolor blue sky with PIXAR-style fluffy white clouds, promising us all kinds of bullshit. Of course, he was "pro choice" back then, too! It must have cost him a frigging fortune, that ad alone! He certainly had money to burn--his ads ran every five minutes, and no, I'm not exaggerating--it was obnoxious.

So, short version: The undecided voters gave him a go and put him over the top because they didn't like Shannon O'Brien (she comes from a "machine" family that goes back generations) or were sexist, they may have believed some of Mittsy's bullshit about jobs and industry and experience (fool 'em once, won't git fooled agin, I'm betting!), and perhaps they wanted to rein in a rambunctious legislature--it was enough to give him the race, which he pretty much bought and paid for.

You see what I see in him. He sure is a furtive, desperate "skin crawling" kind of guy--I'd love it if someone would hook up one of those stress machines to a recording of his voice--he always, to me anyway, sounds like his blood pressure is in the dangerous range--even when he's just talking about something banal.