Boston Globe - "Issues In The Senate Race" - Finally!

[TomCADem]

The people of Massachussetts should know what they are voting for, rather than just spin and sports figures. Here is this last minute article describing where the candidates stand on the issues. The question is why, as noted in earlier thread, such a comparison was not available earlier from a mainstream media publication?

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/01/18/issues_in_the_senate_race/

FEDERAL HEALTH CARE PLAN
Brown opposes. Pledges to be the key 41st vote against it. Supported Massachusetts' law expanding health care coverage to nearly all state residents but proposes to let a health board review and reconsider benefits that have been mandated by the Legislature since then.

Coakley Supports. Opposed House amendment that would restrict abortion access but supports Senate version, which would keep funding separate.

ABORTION
Brown supports Roe v. Wade, Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, and strong parental notification law on abortion. Proposed an amendment to a bill requiring hospitals to offer rape victims emergency contraception, allowing health care workers to opt out based on their beliefs. Brown then voted for the bill without the amendment.

Coakley supports Roe v. Wade. Opposes Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. Volunteered as a lawyer to help young women without parental consent get court orders allowing abortions. As attorney general, sued the Bush administration over regulations that would protect health care workers who refuse to provide services or prescriptions on religious grounds.

AFGHANISTAN
Brown supports President Obama's plan to send 30,000 more troops.

Coakley opposes president's plan, saying efforts should be focused on areas where Al Qaeda is now.

ECONOMY
Brown opposes tighter regulation of the financial industry.

Coakley supports new, tighter regulation on financial industry.

ENVIRONMENT
Brown opposes the wind farm proposed off Cape Cod. Opposes a federal cap and trade plan to limit greenhouse gases though as a lawmaker, he voted for Massachusetts to join a similar regional plan.

Coakley supports the wind farm. Supports a national cap and trade program on greenhouse gases.

TAXES
Brown opposes President Obama's proposal to tax large financial institutions to recoup taxpayers' investment in the economic recovery, saying raising taxes will kill jobs. Wants to extend Bush tax cuts for all taxpayers and reduce tax rates across the board.

Coakley supports President Obama's proposal to tax large financial institutions to recoup taxpayers' investment in the economic recovery. Supports letting Bush tax cuts on the top 2 percent of taxpayers expire.

TERRORISM
Brown supports waterboarding to get information from suspected terrorists. Opposes legal representation for alleged terrorists in civilian courts and wants them tried as enemy combatants in military tribunals.

Coakley opposes waterboarding. Supports trials for suspected terrorists in civilian courts, pointing to the consecutive life sentences that shoe bomber Richard Reid is serving after trial in federal court in Boston.

[jpak]

1. Too little, too late - Doug Flutie and Curt Shilling have spoken

n/t

[AlinPA]

2. Then there is the small matter of Supreme Court judges and Brown's vote there.

That's a sure filibuster.

[goclark]

3. Not to late to get out the vote for the Democrat! nt

[frazzled]

4. If people voted on the issues, this would matter

But they really don't.

[GoCubsGo]

5. Actually, a lot of them do.

The problem is that it's usually just one issue. I cannot begin to tell you how many people I know vote "R" strictly over the abortion issue.

[TomCADem]

6. They Do, But Think of John McCain Being Portrayed As A Moderate

Republicans like John McCain and Scott Brown are often portrayed as moderates by the media. Yet, when you look at their records, they are extremely conservative. Heck, even most Republicans do not publicly endorse water boarding, yet here is Scott Brown trying to exploit polls that say that most people would support water boarding the man who attempted the Christmas day bombing. Scott Brown is touring with Rudy Giuliani around MA in order to exploit fears on National Security because Coakley is even more pacifistic than President Obama, because she opposes the expansion of the war in Afganistan.

[frazzled]

8. Actually, most studies bear out that people vote pretty irrationally

A candidate's looks or personality, the weather on election day ... or, at best, a single issue (such as the abortion one the poster above mentions) ... despite the fact that a candidate may fly in the face of specific issues they support.

I think we're seeing an irrational frustration with the speed of economic recovery at work here. An anti-incumbency reaction (and in MA, that means Democratic incumbents). But none of it is informed or rational. Most voters have no cohesive political philosophy at all.

Read this fascinating article by Louis Menand (originally in The New Yorker) from back in 2004. It'll make you laugh and weep.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/08/30/040830crat_atlarge

[Name removed]

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