Riverwood Presbyterian Church

Politics

The Newest Red State?

by Clay Staggs

This is starting to break into the mainstream press, so perhaps you’ve seen this already. However, it’s such a fascinating potential development, that I have to comment.

Scott Brown is the Republican nominee for the senate seat from Massachusetts that is open as a result of Ted Kennedy’s death. The election is next Tuesday, and pits Brown, a state senator, against Martha Coakley, the sitting state attorney general. Now, MA is probably one of the bluest states in the union. However, the last few polls out on this race have shown it incredibly close, with one poll even showing Brown ahead by a point.

Making matters even more interesting, Brown has made the race an open referendum on ObamaCare, stating forthrightly that he would be the 41st vote to filibuster the existing bill. This has made him an internet phenom - he raised $1M yesterday, mostly in small donations of $5-10 and most coming from out of state.

Yesterday was the last debate, and by all accounts, Brown did very, very well. Quoth Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

While most of the post-debate attention has focused on Scott Brown’s Reaganesque moment in declaring that the Senate seat doesn’t belong to the Kennedy family or the Democrats but to all Massachusetts voters, Coakley had a Gerald Ford-esque moment on the war in Afghanistan. She declared Afghanistan to be terrorist-free and wants the troops to come home now:

Wow. Sometimes in politics, there are moments that really show you that a tide has turned. I thought Obama’s election was one of those times. Interestingly, now it seems not so much. In fact, if MA elects a Republican to the senate, that will be more than the tide turning - it will be a political tsunami.