If Kennedy’s senate seat goes to a republican some one will have some splainin to do:
I don’t mean to get ahead of things. But I cannot help noting one blazingly obvious fact. If Michael Capuano had been the Democratic nominee, there’s simply no way we’d have gotten to this point (I used to live in his district). No way. Absolutely, no way. That is not simply to say that Coakley has run a bad campaign. That seems obvious; but I’m always a bit dubious of evaluations of a campaign (obvious as it may seem in the moment) because it’s very hard to view as a struggling campaign as a well run one. And I’m not saying Capuano is the second coming. But Coakley is just culturally and temperamentally not suited to the politics of 2009/2010.
She did win a primary. So it’s not like party bosses forced the choice, at least not in the narrow sense. But there’s got to be some reckoning and thought as to why the Dems ended up with this nominee. I don’t think the answer will be a pleasing one.
–Josh Marshall
Here in Colorado we seem to have the same thing going where Micheal Bennet was appointed to Ken Salazar’s Senate seat, when Salazar joined Obama’s cabinet. Bennett had never held an elected office and does not seem interested in campaigning. Democrats need to realize that being right on the issues isn’t always enough you also need good candidates to implement those issues.