The biggest concern about last night was the battle field we facedmostly Republican turf issues like taxes, immigration, crime and the Democratic Legislature. The only winning issue we had dealt to us last night was the Big Dig. Sure it was a Fox debate and maybe that was the last of those questions. I dont think so. So far were fighting the issues the Rs are framing. Sure, were fighting aggressivelygotta love the nearly $1 billion in taxes and fees Deval sprung last nightits still is their home turf. How long can we expect to be winning the debate on their issues? The debate must change to issues like education, economic growth and public safety issues like laid off cops and fire fighters or the heroin epidemic that Healey has ignored for the last four years.
Which brings me to another concerndespite Devals proclamation otherwise, politics is a contact sport and while running a string of negative ads against Healey will probably be counter productiveDeval has got to throw an elbow or two. Kerry is taking every chance she gets to tell voters that you cant trust Deval with your moneyhe will raise your taxes blah, blah, blah. It was OK to hide behind Christy for one debate, but voters want to make sure their leaders are tough and can fight. How else can Deval be an outsider and fight the hack Legislature? No doubt Deval is tough. But if he doesnt show he can mix it up while he is being attacked, the swing voters may see a weak candidate that doesnt have the tough leadership qualities to be Governor.
So there is a dark lining to the silver cloud of last nights debate.
david says
though “dark lining” seems a tad melodramatic, no?
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Certainly, that wasn’t the last we’ll hear of taxes and immigration. But I suspect it may be the last time we’ll hear a debate moderator ask three or four separate questions on each of those topics.
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And while I agree that Deval could sometimes be more forceful – the immigration answers, for instance, were weak, because he didn’t sound convinced of what the right answer was – in general I think the high-road approach is a good one (especially if Christy wants to do the dirty work). All along he’s been portraying himself as someone who can and will rise above the petty bickering, and if he descends into petty bickering at a debate, that line becomes less convincing.
fdr08 says
Christy Mihos will cost Kerry Healey this election. If he draws 5% Kerry is done. Mihos is to Healey what Nader was to Gore…a real spoiler. My Republican friends were hoping that Christy would just go away, he is not, and they are concerned now.
freshayer says
While driving back from where I was standing at the polls last Tuesday, I heard two pundits on the radio talking about what Deval would need to win. That being he would have to do strong in Dorchester to counteract Southy. I contemplated that the conventional wisdom still had blinders on that didn’t see past Boston. As the results proved, Deval tapped into the disaffected voters (those of us who do not live in Boston) and the need for a different dialogue in how we elect those whose job it is to serve us. All bets are off on speculative conventional wisdom, even progressive as you have to look at past performance to formulate those opinions. In this forward looking election cycle I see the politics of hope wining by 25% (minimum). As Deval say’s people are checking back in and while Blogs, Pundits, Political Junkies and Opinion Editors will mull, dissect, ruminate and debate this just may be an election cycle where the people will decide based on the content of ones character rather than the color of their opponents political metaphors about them. Just look at public reaction (in the first poll out from the election night) to Healy’s mud spattering diatribe to Devals asking for a discussion on the issues. If there is a dark lining it is the remnant from the storm that passed and not a sign of the one to come.
denali says
As one of the disaffected D’s, I expect that I’ll vote for Christy. Being a divorced father in Massachusetts most closely resembles being a Jew in Germany in about 1935. Christy at least recognizes that we exist.
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Fortunately, he hasn’t got a chance of winning; I couldn’t vote for him otherwise.
theopensociety says
I am sure you did not mean to do this, but comparing your plight as a divorced father in Massachusetts to the plight of Jews in Germany in 1935 really diminishes the horror that the Jews in Germany in 1935 went through. Their lives and livelihood were in jeopardy. I seriously doubt that whatever you have gone through comes even close to what they went through, even before the “final solution” began.
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As for voting for Christy Mihos because he has not chance of winning, if everyone thought that way, Christy Mihos would be elected governor. Then we would end up with a governor that even you do not want.
denali says
You don’t know the horror of being a divorced father in Massachusetts. Yes, my life and livelihood have been, and are, quite literally in jeopardy. Were you aware that the rate of suicide for divorced men is about 10 times that of divorced women? I suspect that it is much higher still for divorced fathers.
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Here are a few highlights of my experience:
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After my ex-wife was arrested for domestic assault and admitted to the crime, it was I who was given a restraining order. I was not given custody of my daughter and was designated a ‘non-custodial parent’ because I was her primary caretaker. (Yes, –because– I was her primary caretaker, not in spite of it.) This was despite the Guardian Ad Litems report recommending that I be given custody.
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When it came to finances, the judge gave us a split right down the middle; she got the assets, and I got the liabilities; she got the business we started together, and I got the debts from the business. I ended up with more than a quarter million dollars of debt (I was making about $35,000 per year at the time.) I was given very liberal visitation with my daughter; I had her about three days per week. As such, I had nearly all the same expenses as her mother. None of this was taken into account when deciding child support. The child support guidelines were applied, as is usually the case, with no regard to our actual situation. (The Massachusetts guidelines are easily the highest in the country, in some cases nearly double the amount required by every other state in the country.)
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When my salary went up, the Mass DOR informed my ex of the fact and provided her with a free lawyer to obtain an increase in child support. When I was laid off after 9/11 and computer-programming jobs had completely disappeared from the area, I had to wait a year and a half to get a hearing on a modification. At this point, I was starving (I had lost 40 pounds), and my daughter and I were being evicted from our home. The DOR was helping my ex file contempt charges for non-support against me. I pointed out that, ignoring the time she was asleep or in school, I actually spent more time with my daughter; as the one who took her to the dentist and doctor, I had more expenses concerning her and my ex-wife was currently making more money than I was. The judge solved this problem by subtracting another day per week from my visitation with my daughter.
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I state this here in the hope that some Democrats will actually pay attention to our plight and do something about it, not only because it would be good for fathers, but it would be good for the Democratic Party. Perhaps no one has noticed, but we seem to have lost the last two presidential elections with a huge gender gap. While some feminists like to point to this gender gap as proof that they are helping the party, I would point out that this gender gap works both ways. I would submit that the Democrats are not so much gaining women, as they are losing men. If it were not for the gender gap, Al Gore would have been president for the past six years.
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As a liberal who has been promoting fathers’ rights for the past 7 years, I have spoken with hundreds of fathers. It is typical to find that as they learn more about the system, their political views move further and further to the right. The Republicans take advantage of this to no end. Check out http://www.mensnewsdaily.com to see how they mix right wing propaganda with fathers’ rights blogs.
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I find this unfortunate because fathers’ rights should be a Democratic issue. All we want are equal rights! The Republicans, for their part, have no real interest in fathers’ rights and have done nothing for us, but at least they aren’t actively against us. The Democratic Party seems to be the party of misandry.