It used to amuse me every time Democrats lost an election, to see many on this site absolutely freak out as if the end of the world was upon us. I would laugh, b/c our movement was supposed to be a strong, bold agent for change, and instead I see many within the movement literally melt down at the first sign of trouble. I'm no longer amused. Now it's just annoying. So, for the love of God, man, planet, movement and everything else, I would like to offer this message to members of the Dailykos community who have had to change their underwear a few times since Tuesday......CHILL OUT!!!!
It's everywhere. On this site, on MyDD, Politics1 and several other blogs with a progressive population. An absolute meltdown over the fact that the GOP won a Senate seat in a special election. We've got Blame Obama diaries...people calling for Tim Kaine's head, one diarist even looking for ways to not seat Brown in order to pass the health care bill without him.
First, the blame game. What did we expect Obama to do? It's a damned Senate seat in Massachusetts. If there was ever a place where we have to trust the team to win without the manager looking over the shoulder, it's a Democratic campaign in MASSACHUSETTS! President Obama has much more to focus on than trying to bail out a SHIT nominee in a SPECIAL ELECTION in one of the most DEMOCRATIC states for FEDERAL elections. Sorry everyone, but this is not the President's deal. In my humble and not very influential opinion, the President did more than he should have by going up there to try and bail Coakley out. It was pretty clear before he went that Coakley simply had let the Senate slip beyond her reach. But whatever. He did go up there and try. To all those leaking in their drawers over the President's "failure" (what failure?) I ask a simple question, what did you expect him to do?
The same goes for DNC Chairman Tim Kaine. He's no Howard Dean I grant you. Yet I would argue even Dean would not have been able to save this seat. Why? B/c NOTHING MAKES UP FOR A CRAP NOMINEE!! Nothing. Not a great message, not a great staff, not great television commercials, not great organization. If the nominee sucks, your campaign is doomed. You could be the best chef in the world, but if you don't cook with the right food, you're not going to win Top Chef!!
Martha Coakley did not cook with the right food. In fact, she didn't cook at all. She didn't campaign. The most passion she showed during the general election was her concession speech. Isn't that sad? What genius goes off the campaign trail 20 days before the election for a "break"? What genius tells a group of newspaper journalists that she preferred party leader meetings to campaigning and meeting voters? If there was an award for most inept campaign run in past decade...we'd have a winner right there in Martha Coakley. The fault lies with HER and her only.
My favorite blame argument so far is the one blaming the media. Not only is that argument getting old, it's also ridiculous. What exactly did the media do for Coakley to lose this race? They reported that Brown was gaining in the polls (true). They reported that Coakley preferred meetings with party leaders to campaigning with voters (true). They reported that Brown held almost 3 times as many events as Coakley (true). All that seems perfectly fair to me. They didn't build up the race, hoping for a story. They reported an actual news event...a Democratic campaign so inept that it was blowing a double digit lead to hold onto a seat Democrats had held for half a century. That's news folks. None of the blame for Coakley's loss can be blamed on the Press.
As to what comes next...the first thing needs to be TAKE A BREATH. The Democrats still have 59 Seats in the Senate. We couldn't get the health care we wanted through when we ostensibly has 60 seats (if you count Lieberman). What makes this so different? We couldn't get it with 60, so why are some losing it over having that # knocked down to 59? Think about it! It doesn't make any sense.
I know, it was the seat held by Ted Kennedy. I got news for you...that doesn't matter any more. It's humiliating...but sometimes humiliating losses happen. The humiliation is compounded when people freak out over the results. Guess what! We won a Congressional seat in a district that had only Republicans going back to the time of Lincoln. That's not one person..or one family. That's a succession of Republicans...brought down in one election...where not even party base stars like Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin could save it. You want to talk humiliation? It goes both ways. The way to recover is not to lose your cool, but to turn your focus to what is next. Right now, that is making Brown irrelevant by winning 5 or more Senate seats this cycle, crushing the 59 Republicans.
Look back in any profession and tell me when losing one's cool helped a person, company, campaign or organization make gains towards their goals. Barack Obama won the White House largely b/c of his coolness under pressure- in contrast with McCain who panicked at cratering poll numbers and a bad economy. Look at any poker pro's career- the difference b/w winning and losing money is how you deal with adversity at the poker table. If you lose your temper, you start playing badly...and as a result, you lose even more money. Just two examples.
The way forward is clear. Calm down, take a few deep breaths and regroup. Defeats happen to the best of us. As you may recall, it damn near happened to Ted Kennedy in 1994. The Republicans regrouped after that Congressional humiliation. And look what happened.
It's an ugly loss for us. But it's hardly earth shattering. In fairness, neither was our win in the Congressional district. It was a special election. Only motivated voters vote. Ours weren't motivated. Remember that before assigning blame. Whose job is it to motivate voters when running for office? THE CANDIDATE'S. Special election victories mean very little normally. This one is no different. Again, we couldn't pass the damned legislation with 60 votes....why are we suddenly going nuts that we're down to 59? It doesn't make any sense.
Some things you just can't control. We got a crappy nominee and an opponent who really worked his ass off to win this election. Hard work trumps ideology when that person decides she's already won and doesn't need to campaign. That's what happened here. Sugarcoat it all you want, but Martha Coakley did not do what was necessary to win this race. Scott Brown did. The fault lies with Coakley and her campaign team. Not with Obama. Not with Kaine. Not with the media. Coakley lost this race.
Hopefully this will be a lesson to all of our incumbents and nominees running later this year. This is twice in a row that a lock race for a political party was won by the opposite party. These races are up for grabs. If you want to win, you have to be better. The only way to be better is to show up. Martha Coakley was not smart enough to know that. Our candidates for November had better be!!