The lefties are trying to figure out what happened. Here is an interesting analysis from a far left site that has gotten much more left wing since Kevin Drum left. Let’s analyze their thinking.
With that in mind, here are my Top 5 lessons to be learned from the Mess in Massachusetts.
1. Successful candidates hit the campaign trail. Candidates seeking office should probably campaign while voters are making up their minds. It’s old-fashioned thinking, I know, but winning a primary and then dropping out of sight — while your opponent is working hard to reach out to voters — tends to be a bad idea.
This is true and Brown was a superb candidate. He is the most skilled retail politician I have seen in a long time, maybe since Reagan. That, however, follows the meme so common on the left this week. The skills of the candidate are only part of a winning formula. One of those skills is to learn what the voters are concerned about. You have to choose your issues.
2. Voters like likeable candidates. Some voters care more about policy and substance than which candidate they most want to have a beer with, but these voters tend to be outnumbered. We’ve all seen races in which the thoughtful, hard-working, experienced candidate who emphasizes substantive issues loses out to the fun, likable opponent (see 2000, presidential election of).
Here we see the left wing arrogance about the stupid voters (What’s the Matter With Kansas ?) who are taken in by the slick candidate. On the other hand, did you see John Kerry the past two days ? What an arrogant ass ! Scott Brown showed the sunny optimism that Reagan was famous for and it helped a lot.
3. Saying dumb things will undermine public support. When the pressure was on, Coakley insulted Red Sox fans — twice. She kinda sorta said there are “no terrorists in Afghanistan,” and that “devout Catholics” may not want to work in emergency rooms. When the Democratic campaign realized it was in deep trouble, and readied an effort to turn things around, it had trouble overcoming the distractions caused by the candidate’s public remarks.
The Coakley gaffes certainly kept her from connecting but, once again, those voters in Massachusetts are mostly Democrats ! A Democrat candidate should know how to connect to Democrats. If the lefties think they were dumb, maybe they should think about how intelligent the average Democrat voter is.
4. Learn something about your opponent. Because the Democratic campaign assumed it would win, it didn’t invest much energy in understanding its opponent (who, incidentally, won). They didn’t identify Brown’s weak points, and seemed to know practically nothing about his background. When the race grew competitive, nearly all of the damaging stories about the Republican candidate came from well-researched blog posts, not the campaign’s opposition research team. “Get to know your opponent” is one of those lessons taught on the first day of Campaign 101, and campaigns that forget it are going to struggle.
The Democrats might have spent some time doing oppo research on their own candidate. They might have learned about her role in the disgusting persecution of the Amirault family. Scott Brown is clean as a whistle. He has a great and photogenic family with a wife who is a TV reporter and a daughter who was a semi-finalist on American Idol.
5. Enthusiasm matters. No matter how confused and uninformed Brown’s supporters seemed, they were also motivated. Dems liked Coakley, but they weren’t, to borrow a phrase, fired up and ready to go.
More left wing arrogance. Brown’s supporters can’t just disagree on the country’s agenda. They have to be “confused and uninformed.” I see no mention of Obama’s uninformed and arrogant theme about Brown’s truck. “Anybody can buy a truck.” Brown, in another example of his quick reflexes, came right back with “Not everybody can afford to buy a truck now, Mr President.”
This guy is a Republican superstar. He is pro-choice but has opposed partial birth abortion and was slammed by Coakley for proposing a conscience exemption for those healthcare workers who are opposed to abortion. That made his bones for the pro-life voter. He is a moderate Republican but is very agile in policy debates.