Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

A good night for Niki

By

Niki Tsongas had a good night at the NECN studios tonight.  She was the only candidate on the stage who looked comfortable, confident and ready to go to work as soon as she’s sworn in — in short, she’s ready for prime time, and the others aren’t.  She stated her positions clearly and without apology, including being unafraid to state disagreements with her party leaders (such as saying how surprised and disappointed she was by the Dem prez candidates on Iraq and timetables) when appropriate.

And she took some major wind out of Ogo’s sails by stealing his biggest talking point.  Ogo’s thing is that Congress is broken, he’s not a partisan guy, he’s going to do things differently, right?  But moderator Jim Braude (excellent as always) asked the candidates to prove how bi- or non-partisan they are by coming up with proposals sponsored by someone from the other party that they could support.  Niki Tsongas had two excellent answers: SCHIP (which is a Democratic initiative, but is genuinely bipartisan as it’s supported by many Republicans as well as Democrats), and President Bush’s immigration plan — which is clearly both sponsored by and backed by Republicans.

Ogo’s answer on the same question was a disaster.  He started out by blathering about how he’s so non-partisan.  What does he think, that one guy is going to single-handedly undo the party system in the United States?  Good luck with that, Jim.  And then, when pressed by Braude, Ogo again could not come up with a single Democrat-sponsored proposal.  He mumbled something about how much he likes nature, so maybe he could find an environmental bill he’d like.  But he didn’t name anything.  So he’s either woefully unprepared (he has, after all, been asked this exact question before), or he’s unwilling to go on record with supporting anything that a Democrat has sponsored.  I don’t know which it is; neither makes him look very good.  The guy is a Republican, and a pretty conservative one at that.  He just doesn’t want to admit it.

Furthermore, Jim Idon’tknowski was in fine form tonight, again refusing to disclose whether he would or would not vote to override President Bush’s veto on SCHIP.  At this point, IMHO, Ogo simply looks ridiculous on this issue.  The veto is a huge issue, and if the MA-05 winner is seated in time (which she may well be), that vote is going to matter.  A lot.  The people of MA-05 deserve to know where their representative stands on it.  His refusal to answer makes him look profoundly weak.  Ogo’s going to lose a significant number of votes over his bizarre refusal to talk about his position on the SCHIP veto.

The closing statements confirmed what had come before.  Niki was smooth, solid, confident.  Ogonowski was nervous, halting, disjointed (to quote the Lowell Sun, he “fumbl[ed] through his closing statement”).

Niki by 15.

Please share widely!
fb-share-icon
Tweet
0

Comments

  1. Jim Ogonowski looked calm and collected and quite frankly the best I’ve seen him this entire campaign season.  Niki looked like she was fiddling around.  Really illegal immigrant enforcement compared to alligator attacks. 

    <

    p>
    David, 15 points really.  As long as we are prognosticating.  Ogonowski by 5. 

      • Braude asked him directly if he would tell him how he would vote and Ogonowski said, NO.  Now how would any voter in MA-5 would see that answer and feel comfortable voting for this guy?  It’s the beginning of the end, and it couldn’t happen to a better guy.

        <

        p>

        • and that a new bill must be drafted. A bill that restores the current safeguards against illegal immigrants receiving benefits. 

          <

          p>
          He is being truthfull, tsongas eh not so much.

          • I can’t figure it out, what would be the consequences of saying that he would not vote to override the veto.  He said it’s a bad bill, why the double talk?  It doesn’t portray him as being trustworthy.

          • He “knows” like you use “facts”.  You’re claim that the veto won’t be overridden as “fact” is bogus — I’ve addressed it here, including pointing out that 8 Dems who voted against could be swayed to override, and another 3 Dems [and 5 GOPers] didn’t vote at all, allowing for even more votes.

            <

            p>
            Will the Dems need some GOP members of the House to vote to override who didn’t vote for SCHIP the first time?  Yip.  Will the issues ads that 527s and other groups put on television in vulnerable GOP districts be persuasive?  We’ll see.  In any case, it certainly isn’t “fact” in this reality-based community.

        • interesting to watch his face overcome with nervous tics as the question was being asked.  he clearly knows that this is a killer for him.  i can only conclude that he does know how he would vote, but is unwilling to say so because he is afraid of losing some voters.

      • and yes, he sucked poorly in that on.  I have no doubt he performed 100% better tonight (I’ll see later).  That is, he went from a 1 to a 2 out of 10.

    • …and this was Ogonowski’s best performance during the entire campaign season, then my sympathies go out to the folks in the 5th should he be elected.

      <

      p>
      I almost felt bad for him…Tsongas cleaned up.

  2. What is this, American Idol?  Are we just central casting, choosing the person to play our Congressman on TV?

  3. well, let’s see. We have a major disaster of war, an increase in unemployment, a health care cost and coverage crisis and enviromental issues to deal with. So do we want the guy who can’t tell us where he stands on SCHIPS veto and can’t name a Democratic bill that he supports?

    <

    p>
    If this were American Idol, Ogo be the guy who sings so badly they keep him on for a few shows for comic relief. 

  4. I did not see this debate and must rely on the accuracy of David’s posting that Niki Tsongas said she could support the Bush immigration plan. That is a stunning revelation especially for American construction workers (and other workers) who fought this plan tooth and nail because it undercut the wage scales of American workers while letting greedy businesses (who lured illegal immigrants over the borders with illegal jobs) off pretty much free from prosecution or real punishment. No higher fence is needed, higher fines and enforcement are needed to thwart the business entities that keep the flow of illegal immigrants coming while they send the wage scales to the bottom.

    <

    p>
    I hope Niki will rethink her position on this one when she gets to Congress…it is as conservative and anti-worker as anything Ogonowski would support.

  5. who stands for/supports what including:

    <

    p>
    *Illegal alien ( oops “undocumented alien) tuition:  Tsongas = for  Ogo = against

    <

    p>
    *Term limits   Tsongas = against  Ogo = for

    <

    p>
    *Veto current SCHIP bill ( provides health care to 25 year old “children” and families with $80k +incomes

    <

    p>
    Tsongas = overide veto
    Ogo = bad bill that needs to be rewritten

    <

    p>
    *War

    <

    p>
    Tsongas = withdraw troops immediately
    Ogo = withdraw over time

    <

    p>
    IMO , people got to hear what these people are all about.
    My take?

    <

    p>
    Tsongas.
    Washington partisan politics as usual..more of the same. Could have been Ted K or John Kerry reading her talking points for her. Called in the usual Dem “star power” to protect a 33 year  Dem lock on the seat

    <

    p>
    Ogo.. appears altruistic and somewhat clumsy and naive ( refreshing actually).It is easy to tell he is not a career politician. He says he is non partisan. If the absence of ANY big name repubs stumping for him is any indication… I believe him.

    <

    p>
    I think this race is a whole lot closer than the partisan crowd here wants to admit. The deciding factor will be if people want more of the business as usual , Dem fare or
    want to take a shot at trying to change things in Washington.

    <

    p>
    As much as Bush has hurt republican efforts, I think that moonbats like Deval ( a total failure thus far) have turned off a lot of people here in Mass. Soaring taxes, tolls, inner city murders, political corruption and all that’s wrong with a one party system might be on the minds of voters in the 5th that might want to try something different

    <

    p>
    We’ll see

  7. From the Lowell Sun’s write-up of the debate, by reporter Matt Murphy:

    <

    p>

    Ogonowski did not wait after the debate to take questions as the other candidates did, instead leaving immediately.  As he looks to close the gap between himself and Tsongas in the final weeks of the campaign, he stumbled in last night’s debate, fumbling through his closing statement and failing to answer several of Braude’s specific questions.

    <

    p>
    Yeah, pretty much.  Glad to see some of our MSM friends are calling ’em like they see ’em.

      • He still gave Tom Menino a run for his money:

        <

        p>
        http://streams.wgbh….

        <

        p>
        Some people may equate incomprehensible with honest and folksy. I’d rather have someone who has a chance of winning an argument in Washington. 

        <

        p>
        Can anyone claim to speak to his claim to be more local than Tsongas?  It’s not terribly compelling to me, but I don’t live in MA05.

    • Matt’s done a great job this campaign season covering this race. He’s been fair, he’s done some digging in his articles (of course, I always want more, but I’m hard to please), he’s done actual real reporting using…gasp…context. I have a lot of respect for Matt, who’s managed to do this in, uh, less than perfect circumstances…his boss isn’t the most fair and balanced editor in the world.

      <

      p>
      The Sun has a deserved rep of bias and agenda-setting…Matt and some of his colleagues however, are turning that on its head.

      <

      p>
      If it keeps up, I might have to shell out for a subscription, something I never thought I would do.

    • It might be useful for this race for Nikki to get an endorsement from Representative Patrick Murphy, an excellent freshman Democrat already in the House. The GOP is having trouble recruiting an opponent for him so he might have some time to spare.

  9. …Tsongas did not feel it necessary to let loose a Hillary-style cackle, it probably was a decent night for her.

    <

    p>
    We live in Barney’s district.  If he were to let loose a Hillary-style cackle, I’d be a little disconcerted.

    <

    p>
    BTW, Barney will continue to be re-elected regardless of whether he lets loose a Hillary-style cackle.  He is wildly popular here.  Why?  Because he pays attention to the district.  In 1989 my then partner (now spouse) called Barney’s local office to complain about Barney’s stance on one issue (I forget what it was…Barney is much more liberal than we we and still are–but it wasn’t a gay issue).  That was midday on a Friday.  That very night Barney himself called him back to discuss the issue with him. 

    <

    p>
    We were amazed.  We still don’t particularly care for Barney’s liberalism on more than a few issues.  But the fact that he would call us back to discuss the issue personally made it clear that he cared what his constituents are concerned about.  That actually does mean a lot, which more than a few politicians want to ignore.

Archives