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On Tuesday, Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts did something unheard of since 1966: He won a Senate seat in a state with an active Democratic political machine. The debate in the time since has revolved around who to blame for Democrat Martha Coakley’s defeat in this special election to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.
Just how badly did this election have to go for a Republican to win comfortably in perhaps the most liberal state in the nation? Very badly.
Ted Kennedy was never seriously challenged in any of the nine Senate elections he faced. The closest he came to losing was in 1962 – his first go-around. He was running in a special election to replace his brother, John, who had been elected president. His closest race was not close – he won the election by over 13 percent.
Kennedy often didn’t really have to campaign to win. His reputation weathered many storms, like a 1969 incident in which he drove a car off a bridge into a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick Island, Mass. His passenger, Mary-Jo Kopechne, drowned while Kennedy swam out and eventually walked away. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury. Few politicians would have recovered from such an incident, but Massachusetts forgave Kennedy and always re-elected him with confidence.
I believe Coakley thought she would ride the late senator’s coattails to an easy victory by invoking his name as much as she could. She should have showed a deep respect and even a love for Kennedy, but shouldn’t have presented herself as his reincarnation.
This resulted in a reserved campaign. Then, on the rare occasion that she took chances, she looked stupid.
She said terrorists had packed up and left Afghanistan for Pakistan and Yemen. She called former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, Boston fans’ World Series icon, a New York Yankees fan. She has since called the Schilling comment a “joke.” In my humble opinion, she was about as in the loop as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was about the Bush Doctrine in a September 2008 interview with former ABC World News anchor Charles Gibson.
Coakley believed she would be accepted as Kennedy’s extension solely based on party affiliation and often referred to the seat she was running for as “Ted Kennedy’s seat.” Bad idea.
Brown refuted this beautifully (and more correctly) when he called it “the people’s seat.” It was never really Ted Kennedy’s seat. He’d tell you that. The people control the seats – not one politician, thankfully.
Many have called Coakley a weak candidate. Although this is probably true, she obviously was the best that Massachusetts Democrats had to offer. She won her primary by 19 percent. That is a lot of votes. A lesser candidate from the party, such as Rep. Michael Capuano, wouldn’t have fared any better. Brown caught lightning in a bottle and ran an everyman campaign, shaking hands and sticking in the minds of voters.
He was graceful under attack, not responding to an incoherent verbal tirade by MSNBC pundit Keith Olbermann, the most biased and slanderous “news” personality on TV today. Olbermann called Brown “an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees.” Jon Stewart brilliantly commented on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” that Olbermann’s description was “the harshest description of anyone I’ve ever heard uttered on MSNBC, and that includes descriptions of the guys that star in your weekend prison program.”
Let’s face it. Brown ran an admirable and active campaign in a time of much national discontent, especially on the subject of health care. Coakley looked to ride the Kennedy mystique to victory and deserved her loss. You can’t run a campaign like that, even in Kennedy-worshipping Massachusetts. Teddy’s day has passed and time will give way to new and great leaders. Who knows? Perhaps Brown can be a great one as well.
Michael Shepherd will appear on Countdown’s “Worst Person in the World” segment tonight at 8 p.m. on MSNBC. Follow him at twitter.com/mikeshepherdME.
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