Coakley's pre-mortem blames national Democrats, not herself

Democratic senatorial candidate Martha Coakley (or is that Croakley?) doesn't even wait for the polls to close in Massachusetts before lashing out. Marc Ambinder gives us a tartly annotated look at her pre-mortem memo, leaked by a Coakley adviser. I am not sure what to excerpt, but have a look yourself. I am still rooting against the odds for the Democratic turnout machine to pull out a victory, but this candidate gets less appealing the more she reveals about her attitude. If she loses as expected, can we please get a another candidate for 2012, preferably one who is delighted to stand outside Fenway in the cold talking to people?

Comments

[Craig Howell]

She (or we) might well have repeated the classic concession speech line: "The People have spoken--the bastards!"

[Rick Rosendall]

I wish more politicians would say something like that--not curse the voters, necessarily, but also not accepting the notion that whatever a poll shows the majority favors at the moment must be right. Torture doesn't work just because a lot of people thought the TV show "24" bore any resemblance to reality. Health insurance is not sustainable on its current trajectory even if people don't like the messy and imperfect process of reform and fail to blame the Republicans for their cynical distortions and obstructionism. Scott Brown's claim that the economic stimulus package did not create a single job is an overt-the-top, egregious lie contradicted by economists in his own party, even if the line gets him applause. And if Democratic officeholders give in to panic and start running away from what they've spent the past year doing, they'll only help guarantee their own defeat. If House Dems who voted for the health care bill last year refuse to vote for the Senate version now, their opponents this fall will mockingly point out that they voted for it before they voted against it. I sure hope that Rahm and Axelrod and others get the point across to them that they have little to lose and much to gain by fighting back. The President needs to come out swinging in his State of the Union address next week--and be ready with a real zinger if the "You lie!" stunt is repeated.