Headlined with only a wee bit of hyperbole. đŸ˜‰ Here is Paul R. Ferro’s magnificent post “Yes, There is a Difference” at the worthy Red Mass Group, in which he cites the National Journal’s 2010 vote rankings and concludes:
National Journal also did an interesting comparison of which senate delegation had the largest gap between it’s two members. Coming in at third biggest, with a 39-point difference?
Massachusetts, with Scott Brown (64.8) and John Kerry (25.8).
Yes, Scott can be frustrating at times. He’s also to the right of every Senate Democrat and 5 Senate Republicans.
One might have continued, “and with most of Massachusetts voters, in particular independents.”
From the elephant’s mouth. Scott Brown is a brilliant politician, in the worst sense of the word. For his own political survival (“National Journal: 11 Vulnerable Senators: Scott Brown”), he positions himself as a moderate when he plays with the local media. Don’t be deceived about the 35th most conservative member of the U.S. Senate: the National Journal isn’t.
david says
President Obama and Governor Patrick have apparently unveiled their master plan of destroying the GOP with kindness, one Republican at a time. How long can any self-respecting right-winger survive when he garners headlines like these?
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p>President Endorses Brown Proposal on Health Care
Patrick gives Romney praise he may not want
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p>LOL
stomv says
Come on. Let’s not oversell his political skills. Not every upset is the result of amazing ability, tactics, and skill. Sometimes a variety of circumstances come together and the underdog just wins. If Scott Brown continues to win elections, then I’ll believe in his brilliance. Until then, don’t underestimate him, but don’t overdo it either.
sabutai says
Brown rode the crest of the Republican fad (re-packaged as the tea party and already starting to wear thin in polls). Maybe he did what other Republicans ended up doing because he was a shrewd innovator, or maybe he was Sharon Angle, but luckier.
bradmarston says
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p>Wouldn’t it be just as accurate to say Senator Brown is closer to the center than all Senate Democrats and nearly 90% of Senate Republicans?
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p>It would be surprising to say the least if Brown wasn’t further to the right than his Democratic counterparts. He is after all a Republican. To claim he is a right wing extremist by saying he further to the right than 5 of 47 other Republicans is absurd.
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p>Okay, to be fair this IS BMG where I assume most readers consider Senators Snowe and Collins right wing extremists.
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p>As for stomv’s assessment of Senator Brown’s political skills, let’s remember that he has won 7 elections in Massachusetts as a Republican. His initial win in the Special Election for State Senate remarkable in that by their own admission the Democrats cheated (by setting the Special Election on the same date as the Presidential Primary with John Kerry on the ballot.
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p>Senator Brown is attacked by the left as being too conservative and attacked by the right as being too liberal. Seems about perfect for most undeclared voters in Massachusetts.
usergoogol says
I think attacking Brown as too conservative is generally an oversimplistic argument. As you note, he’s too conservative because he’s Republican; he’s not terribly conservative by Republican standards, the problem is whether Republicans standards are too conservative such that even a moderate Republican is pretty conservative. (They are, but I mean, you have to make that argument.)
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p>But the argument you make is also fallacious. “Undecided voters” are a diverse breed, and attributing to them the ideal of being precisely between both parties is really oversimplistic. And of course in Massachusetts in particular, the median voter votes for Democrats quite a lot of the time, especially in Federal elections. Scott Brown is indeed a fairly moderate Republican as such things go, but the move from Wrentham or Beacon Hill to Congress means that simply by virtue of being a part of a fairly conservative and fairly powerful Republican caucus means that different aspects of his politics are going to show up.
bradmarston says
Undeclared voters are indeed a diverse breed. From my run for State Rep. I get the feeling most voters in Cambridge are Undeclared because the Democratic Party is just too far right wing for them.
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p>Overall I don’t believe my argument is fallacious as I didn’t “attribut[e] to them the ideal of being precisely between both parties…” That is an assertion I did not make. I do agree with your statement that Senator Brown is a fairly moderate Republican.
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p>Granted Bob admittedly “headlined with a wee bit of hyperbole” but I do hope this continues to be the political meme of the left as we approach the 2012 Elections. It should stand Senator Brown in good stead for re-election.
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hesterprynne says
in one small (1/40th) part of Massachusetts, the part that includes Wrentham, where the median income is half again as high as it is statewide, and where a major concern is the licensing of farriers.
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p>And if you had to look up what a farrier is, welcome to the rest of Massachusetts.
peter-porcupine says
How many people outside of Somerville think a spa is a beauty salon?
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p>UberUrban BMG often misses that not all the voters in the state are inside the Hub.
hesterprynne says
but I don’t think that Scott Brown’s interest in regulating farriers was to ensure that the state’s good plain farm folk would have reliable plow horses for the spring planting.
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p>More about race horses and polo ponies and maybe some extra dough for Plainridge Racecourse?
somervilletom says
I bought slices from the Brookline Spa before I moved to Somerville. đŸ™‚
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p>As long as we’re going there, how many people outside Massachusetts know that coffee “regular” means “cream and sugar”? I guess I always thought that our anachronistic use of “spa” was a Massachusetts thing, like putting ketchup on eggs.
bob-neer says
Hey, France freed us from those horrid redcoats, the least we can do is honor that great culture in this way.
peter-porcupine says