Have I told you how much our local lefty blogs kick butt? May I say it again? You simply cannot get better information on the MA-05 race than our own blogfolk in the field — although the Lowell Sun seems to be doing itself proud as well.
Here’s your MA-05 reading for today:
- Lynne has a very comprehensive write-up of last night’s debate of the MA-05 — subjective, of course, but fair.
- Dick Howe’s got his report — rather more neutral than Lynne, which is useful — and video and pictures.
- The Lowell Sun has a fairly thorough rundown — surprisingly rich in metaphor for a newspaper story. Maybe a little too rich:
Designing the war’s end, however, may reveal a path of pitfalls: Will Iraq fall into stampeding violence? Will the government crumble, and, on that heap, al-Qaida rise? Will Iran and Syria become puppet masters?
So, there could be puppet masters on the stampeding heap in the pit. That would be bad. Seriously, it’s a good article. Well done.
- Via sco, here’s NECN’s story.
So here’s what I take away from all this:
- I think most people reading this site can feel comfortable writing off Miceli. He sounds like a classic Massachusetts Dem-of-convenience, IOW, a Republican — and not a particularly thoughtful one at that. He parrots the childishly nonsensical language of the Bush administration with regard to Iraq. That’s not going to work. It’s over for him.
- Eldridge is plainly trying to stake out his turf as the “progressive” candidate, pushing his support for single-payer health care even in a predominantly foreign-policy forum. This will get him noticed and will attract activists (and already has); whether it puts him over the top in this particular district, we don’t know.
- Tsongas is running a front-runner’s campaign, offering strong-sounding generalities but avoiding taking particularly bold stands on withdrawal, like the McGovern 90-day withdrawal bill. She’s playing it safe. I think it’s too early for that. A lot can happen between now and September.
CORRECTION: We are told that actually Tsongas supported the McGovern amendment.
I’ll try to confirm that.Confirmed. - Finegold has taken on Joe Biden’s plan for a tri-partite Iraq. I don’t know, maybe consolidating ethnic cleansing is really the only way to avoid a massive genocide, like what India endured in 1947. I wish I had any confidence that anything we do now — staying, going, partition, federalism, etc. could avoid that.
I appreciate Finegold mentioning better intelligence and language skills to fight terrorism — and to forge stronger relationships with potential allies in the Middle East. Seriously: There ought to be a major push to learning Arabic, Persian and Urdu in every arm of our diplomatic, intelligence, and military structures.
In any event, like Biden, Finegold sounds like a “liberal hawk”, which is kind of a dying breed these days, a throwback to the good old days when we had responsible civilian leadership of our military and foreign policy. The Iraq war put a severe dent in the reputation of that ilk, and therefore I don’t see Finegold escaping from the muddy middle.
- Donoghue’s in a tough position: She’s clearly well-liked in Lowell, she has some useful endorsements, and apparently projects some passion and intelligence. But she’s not going to out-flank Eldridge on the left, and she’s not going to out-establishment Tsongas. She needs something else — some surprisingly and uniquely firm stands on some issues, or maybe to start a food fight with Tsongas or Eldridge on some issue. (How about health care?)
LOL!