The Curious Case of Scott Brown (w/UPDATE)

A new conservative celebrity has been born seemingly overnight in one of the unlikeliest of places – Massachusetts.  Not even so much the state, but the position he is fighting for is the most surprising of turns – Ted Kennedy’s old Senate seat. The audacity of a Republican to even venture out and try to win this seat is incredible.  A few months ago, Scott Brown received the nomination mostly because no one wanted to run for a meaningless cause.  But in the run-up to a Martha Coakley victory tour something surprising happened; Brown started turning around polls that he was initially down 10-20 points and has made this race a dead heat.  At FiveThirtyEight, their data analysis now shows Brown with a 55% chance of being victorious tomorrow night. So what is the cultural and political importance of this race for what was once the liberal-est of seats?  ***SINCE THIS WAS POSTED, FiveThirtyEight has revised their prediction after the release of some new updated polls showing Coakley in an even worse position.  Nate Silver now predicts the race as a Lean GOP, with 74% chance of going to Brown.

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Harry Reid’s Blunder

A few months ago, I wrote a post about the hypocritical nature of the dreaded “race card” and how it is being used in the identity politics game.  More recently another example was the revelation in a new book in which Harry Reid is quoted as saying Obama was “light-skinned” and lacked a “Negro dialect” – traits that apparently made him a more viable candidate for the Presidency.  While Reid no doubt did not mean anything racist by his comments, and I do mean this, it’s the defense coming to his aid that is, well, indefensible. 

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Joe Lieberman: Enemy #1

I wonder what it feels like to be the most hated man in America? And no, Im not talking about Tiger Woods. In the political world no one is more hated right now than Joe Lieberman.  A decade removed from being his party’s nominee for Vice President of the United States, he is now being viewed as the single opponent preventing the passing of a strong, progressive Health Care Reform Bill.  Although there are several other moderate Democrat senators that have not confirmed they would vote for the current Senate bill, Sen. Lieberman has become an easy target and enemy #1.  Is Joe a vindictive opportunist or a senator sticking with his convictions and constituency? 

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