Thanks to sco for an excellent post on recent TV appearances by DemGov candidates Tom Reilly and Deval Patrick. Both candidates are still speaking largely in generalities – understandable at this stage – but it sounds to me as though they are going to agree on most of the major issues (with one exception, namely, the death penalty – but don’t expect that to be important in this state any time soon, since Romney’s bill is apparently going nowhere, and even if Reilly is elected Governor I can’t imagine he’d spend a lot of effort trying to reinstate it).
The questions for Democrats, then, will be (1) which candidate will be the better leader; (2) which candidate can connect with and inspire Massachusetts voters; and (3) which candidate can beat the Republican candidate (IMHO less and less likely to be Mitt Romney). And I think that’s the right order for those questions. In 2004, many Democrats (I count myself among them to some extent) fell into the trap of thinking that "other people" – that is, people who might otherwise vote Republican – would vote for John Kerry, without thinking enough about why we should vote for John Kerry. I don’t intend to make that mistake again.
In related news, Reilly has continued to amass campaign funds at a record pace; this will pose a significant challenge for Patrick as money becomes a greater factor in the race. And sco offers this additional TV-related commentary about Greater Boston’s recent piece on Scientology. I didn’t see the piece. But I saw Scientologist-in-Chief Tom Cruise’s insane appearance on the Today show (Crooks & Liars has the video – watch it if you haven’t already). The guy has completely lost whatever marbles he may at one time have had. I especially love the part when host Matt Lauer asks about Brooke Shields’s experience with severe postpartum depression and the fact (that right – the fact) that she was helped by antidepressant medication. And before launching into a tirade about how she is basically stupid for not curing her condition through vitamins and exercise, he comes up with this: "ya gotta understand – I really care about Brooke Shields." Yeah. She cares about you too, Tom.
I dunno. According to this report, Katie Holmes was fourth or fifth on Cruise’s list of sweet young things – the first bunch blew him off. Who else thinks this is a huge, bizarre publicity stunt? And who else thinks that Holmes will bail out before she actually has to marry this nutcase? </celebrity gossip>
Does it really matter whether the person can win or not? In a situation where we have a legislature that’s 90% Democratic, I think we should only consider which candidate we like or which inspires us, because chances are, that candidate will be the one with the ability to win anyway.
I don’t think it’s a publicity stunt. I think Katie got sucked into scientology. The others were too smart.
The Boston Globe story about Tom Reilly’s fundraising records raised a question that isn’t getting any attention, and I think is quite important:Is money going to win this for Reilly? The article in the globe didn’t mention that the record that he just broke was set by Tom Birmingham. Guess what? Tom Birmingham didn’t win the primary.