We see plenty of coverage when Rep. O’Flaherty warns Deval against taking us back to the ‘Dukakis Era’. Today we get Joan Vennochi passing along Ray Flynn’s advice of “Move to the center and stay away from liberal politicians”. Is anybody suggesting that Kerry Healey needs to be more moderate in order to win in one of the more progressive states in the country?
Remember the internals of the SurveyUSA poll:
Independents: 54%-30% Patrick
Moderates: 66%-23% Patrick
Add on to that the following Patrick advantages:
1) The huge registration advantage the Democrats hold over the Republicans in this state.
2) The failure of the Republicans to offer anything more than token opposition to any of the members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation.
3) The challenges facing the Republican Party nationwide. How many weeks do you think the Patrick lead in the polls has to hold up before all the big Republican money that’s supposed to come flooding into this race gets diverted to another race that they actually have a chance of winning?
Now I’m not saying this race is over, I’m just wondering why the press (and some of our fellow Democrats) keep acting like Deval’s still the underdog in this race.
Kerry Healey does not need to move to the center because that is where she is – not from the Progressive vantage point, perhaps, but from the reality based one.
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She is pro-choice, for the rollback, and for the death penalty. Matches up nicely with the overall Mass. electorate.
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I happen to disagree with her about the wind farm, but since that remains a Federal project, state officials taking about it are just generating what will make the turbines go round. Instead, I’ll concentrate on the pro-wind farm Congressional candidate running against Delahunt – who IS a Federal official.
If Healey’s positions match up so well with the voters of Massachusetts, how do you explain the 25%? Actually, I believe its because this election is going to be decided as much on leadership qualities as positions on indvidual issues. That’s where Deval kills Healey.
C’mon, all you Democrats, we must listen to the Republicans and let them tell us what’s right, center, or left, and follow their advice to the letter!
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After all, that’s what’s made the Democratic Party as successful at the national level as it is, isn’t it? How’s that “throw the left under the bus so we can stay in power” ploy working out?
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What politician isn’t going to try to claim the center? Healy should be prepared to identify a few hundred thousand people in Mass. that are much more right-wing, as proof.
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P.P., by “…matches up nicely…”, you mean “pushes all the right buttons, or she wouldn’t even get the 25%”, don’t you?
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Lectured by a Republican on “reality-based” — how Orwellian!
I am here to debate, not lecture. Calling me names indicates to me that you do not have any better argument to hand.
I’ll make an effort to use less insulting language next time.
I don’t know whether you’ve noticed or not, but the Globe has recently been assigned a new boss from the Parent Company: The New York Times.
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The new boss fits exactly in the category that many an Introductory Mass Com course teaches nowadays: that media concentration by conglomerates has placed a mandate on publishing and news to get the 20% return on investment that stockholders have come to expect from media holdings.
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The Globe’s new head honcho is a specialist, no surprise, in slashing costs.
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Where do you think the first budget slashing is going to be? With overpriced op-ed writers (as opposed to the columinsts on the front page of the metro section). Why, from a management point of view, would you pay for opinion when there is no lack of quality opinion pouring in from politicians, academics, media personalities, community organizers, specialists, the list goes on and on.
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And who do you think will be the first to go? Let me give you a prediction: last name begins with V. Who will be the last to go? Let me give you another prediction: the only op-ed writer to be found guilty of plagiarism–Jeff Jacoby. You have to keep the “token conservative” to balance out all that liberal bias. So much for the meritocracy you keep advocating for Jeff.
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Does anybody remember Tom Oliphant? When cost cutting comes to town at media companies look for conservatives to keep their jobs, progressives to be the first, and the centrists to have their ranks trimmed.
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Ever since Deval Patrick entered this race Venocchi has been desparately trying to position herself as pundit. She did not want to jump on board early and look naive. She had to stake ground that was going to be different from Adrian Walker and Eileen McNamara, as well as Derrick Jackson. Safest bet for her was the “practical centrist wisdom position” that scoffed at the liberal kool aid drinkers who forced a caucus win, then forced a convention win, then kept their candidate ahead in the polls, then turned out 300,000 more voters than expected on primary day. Whoops!
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After all that hard work you end up being a dime a dozen. Sad, really.
…must work cheap; otherwise, why would they keep him around this long?
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Nice job; I’ve also been annoyed by the “left can’t win/move right” drumbeat from Ms. V. and Scot Lehigh.
….in Massachusetts under the Endangered Species Act.
Nobody tunes into the 4th quarter of a blowout, as my now-broken remote learned with about 9 minutes to go in the Pats game last night.
Couldn’t agree with you more. That’s why when you read the Globe’s coverage of the debate you’ll walk away thinking Healy did well for herself and that Deval had another bad night.
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They are completely uninterested in this being a blow-out. They want a competitive race to increase BOTH ad revenues and OTC sales.