(Full disclosure: the author is an officer on the executive committee of the Greater Blackstone Valley Democrats – this post contains the author’s personal opinions and in no way implies an endorsement of any candidate by the Greater Blackstone Valley Democrats.)
I attended today’s campaign event in Worcester, where Congressman Markey made the following remarks:
I had a chance to chat briefly with the congressman – I told him that we need him in the senate, but more importantly, the environment needs him in the senate. We have a great opportunity to continue leading this nation forward with Warren and Markey making up 1/50th of the “world’s most deliberative body”. Let’s lace up our walking shoes and hit the pavement this spring!
Edited to add: DFTT
Thats because he has been reading my posts and comments on BMG.
I hope nobody in that room loses their job because of his votes for GATT/NAFTA or works for a defense contractor. To be honest, I don’t think Markey will resonate with most voters, I am more confident Lynch can take him.
Terrific video johnt001, I wish someone from the Lynch campaign would do the same. Hope you had a good time.
Step right up folks, I’m Eddie Markey and I’m the guy they cleared the field for…Step right up cause I’ve got your gun control, bla-bla-bla…I’ve got your energy conservation, blah-blah-blah…I’ve got your LGBT rights, blah-blah-blah…I’ve got your women’s rights, blah-blah-blah…I’ve got the Obama agenda, blah-blah-blah…and I’ve got every Beltway cliche down pat, blah-bidi-blah-blah-blah…Did I miss anyone? Sorry, I’ve got your planet saving agenda, too!…..Help me make history!!!!!!!!!!!
Voters can recite the litany themselves…No wonder others are still thinking of jumping in this race! Someone said Ed’s problem is that he is so bland…I disagree…he has a long way to go before he will even attain bland! Political plastic.
In this video, Markey is taking standard talking points and demonstrating a remarkable facility at parallel construction. Unlike hlpeary, i think he delivers these lines with passion and completely believable sincerity.
And to audiences of Democratic activists, this may mostly work.
And beyond our narrow tribe?
Ed’s remarks in this video are not passion born…you can see that someone took out the poll results and made the priority talking point list…”Ed, lead off with gun control, that’s the hot button now, then move to LGBT, women, environment/energy…that’s where the Dem activists ar and we need them to organize for you since you haven’t had a committee or field group since 1984…end with protecting Obama’s agenda against the evil GOP…they love that! And try to seem excited by the campaign.”….He did what he was told, but you can tell the guy has not campaigned in decades, it sounds scripted…voters maynot be as dumb as the Party Poobahs who want to pre-select our candidates think!
I’ll say, I was less than impressed with this … episode.
Someone sit the principle down and get this worked out, quickly.
Somebody needs to tell Markey that he needs a stump speech. He needs to introduce himself to us. He should be saying that he was born in Malden, and his father was a milk-man. He should be saying that he was raised in a Catholic family and went to Catholic schools. We need to know who he is.
His speech was just a menu of Democratic issues.
He spoke very movingly about all the themes you mention, as well as his immigrant past and his brothers and also his mothers illness etc…
Let’s get a grip. This was not a stump speech. This was an off-the-cuff, hey how ya doin’ welcome to a group of likely supporters.
If this was intended as a stump speech, yeah, that’s not good enough. Right now it’s bqhatevwr to me.
hlpeary, you’ve clearly got an anti-Markey vendetta – where does that come from? If you’re here to sell us on some Steve Lynch … I’d just say I doubt you’ll find too many in the Amen choir here.
Charley, he was on the stump in Worcester and gave what he thought the folks wanted to hear him say: a stump speech…nothing is off the cuff when it is a scheduled event…he is just terribly rusty and it comes off beltway inauthentic, consultant/poll driven blah-blah.
He has lived in D.C. for over three decades, never had to do any heavy lifting or concerned about the next paycheck.
Contrast that to Stephen Lynch doing back breaking work, outside in the elements, working in different states that had different safety standards, some worse than others. Actually going to a job site and witnessing a coworker get killed due to an occupational accident. Being responsible for the safety of your crew. Knowing what it is like to not to get a pay check b/c there was no work. Oh yeah, big difference between the two. Markey has lived a privileged life the past few decades, the other has lived a life like you and me.
Dan, you’ve demonstrated so far that you are a one-issue voter. Is Markey so bad on that issue that he would be unacceptable to you? And do you think Lynch is good enough on other issues that he should be winning a wider group of supporters?
hate to say this – but I told you so…..
Never assume…i have no vendetta against any pol (what a waste of time that would be)…but, I am VERY opposed to annointings, coronations or candidate pre-selection and field clearing by Party “we know betters”…which is becoming more frequent…I think V is for voters who this democratic system was designed to empower…the voters are cut out of the process when their choices are pre-selected by Party bosses…I think Markey was a poor, stale but “safe” choice based on an assumed Brown contest. I don’t know much about Lynch’s congressional record (other than he gets labor support)..Beltway boys don’t play well when Congress’ favorability is in single digits. Brown’s no-show now leaves many of the sheep who dutifully lined up behind Markey on cue to clear the field now wondering if they are stuck….I wish there were 5 candidates on both sides of the aisle so talented people could get a platform…but, the power of money and insider Party politics have made that impossible…what this portends for the future is scary and disheartening.
Just wondering.
I just do not have a candidate in the special US Senate race. Today I was at a Soup-er Bowl brunch attended by about 30 pretty politically savvy and connected people. About 25 Dems and 5 Indep I’m estimating. The US Senate race and Brown’s departure was all the talk. I decided to be a good listener. There was universal pleasure in Brown’s departure. But, when it came to the Dem. options there was little enthusiasm for any of the candidates. They are luke warm about Markey. They know little about Lynch. When Leone was mentioned they talked about liking a non-DC candidate in the race but know little about him. The wide majority did not like the Dems “pre-selection” of candidates process. These were all Deval and Elizabeth supporters who liked supporting a new face, a fresh perspective…they don’t put Markey in that category and at least 3 or 4 expressed a feeling of resignation that they are stuck with Markey but have no enthusiasm for the race or him.
Some pre-selection was involved.
The “professional” left was sending me “Draft Elizabeth Warren” emails long before she decided to run. Daily Kos, Chris Bower, and such people strongly felt she would be an excellent candidate. This opinion was happily, oddly, and unusually shared (from what I hear) by officialdom in the national Democratic Party. Ms. Warren certainly ran an excellent campaign and got the people of the Bay State behind her. That was aided by her having a lot of money in her coffers. Her pre-selection helped fill those coffers.
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To the extent that progressives have an unmistakable voice nationally, it is through such organizations as Daily Kos. Generally these are politically savvy people whose choices have been pretty reliable and, if they had as much clout as the NRA or Grover Norquist or the Heritage Foundation, we’d have a better country. So I’m not at all adverse to their sticking their fingers into Massachusetts elections. They do it well.
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Kbusch: You are right about Warren’s pre-selection. Many good candidates were pressured off the playing field to give Elizabeth an easy ride to nomination…the push was just slower…the Markey thing shows that they have mastered the process now and know how to orchestrate it earlier and faster.
Who pushed those candidates out to give Elizabeth an easy ride? I’d really like to know – perhaps you can cite an article or two where a candidate who left the race said they’d been pushed out by a certain person or group?
Cite an article??? That’s funny! ‘Cause when candidates are “cleared of the field”, “strongly encouraged not to run”, “have usually reliable funding sources dry up”, “have former supporters hedge or withdraw support” (all those elements that make it near impossible to stay in a race)…you won’t read it in any article!
…you got nothing. Just as I thought.
Fact is, no one cleared the field or pushed anyone out of the way for Warren. When she got here and decided to run, she inspired massive crowds at her first public events, and every other candidate with a lick of sense read the handwriting on the wall and left the race. No one got pushed out of the race by anyone – every single candidate who dropped out was perfectly free to stay in, as DeFranco did, until the convention. And the ones who dropped out would probably have been able to muster 15% support at the convention.
Perhaps you’ve heard there is a primary on April 30th? Perhaps you’ve heard there are two candidates on the Dem side? Perhaps you’ve heard there’s not even a convention for a special election? I get so tired of the whining when it IS in fact for the voters to decide, and they will. Personally in a Senate special I like incumbent House members because they already know Capitol Hill, have staff, know the issues, etc. This is why I supported Capuano in 2009. This time that particular factor goes to either Markey or Lynch, but I prefer Markey largely because I want to see him be for Big Oil what our other Senator is for Big Finance.
Stipulated that Markey is never going to be the next funky flavor of the season. He is not going to be the outsider who comes on the scene from out of nowhere and lights the world on fire a la Deval and Liz.
He’s been a US rep for some 36 years. But while you see that as a liability, I see that as an asset — not so much as a candidate, but as a Senator, a person who has done the work, and will continue to do the work that desperately needs getting done — right now.
We need to understand what a Herculean effort getting cap-and-trade done in the House was. My God, he had to deal with some of the most unhelpful, parochial doofuses who shared none of the sense of urgency on climate that Ed manifestly possesses. And that was the Democrats! But he put in the endless grunt work, took his lumps and got something done that passed the chamber. If you want to blame someone for it not passing, blame the petro-Dems in the Senate, or the filibuster.
You’re upset that there has been a “coronation”. Well, given what I’ve mentioned, and their long-term work together, I would have been flabbergasted if Kerry had *not* endorsed him strongly. I wasn’t at all surprised by the Vicki endorsement for the same reasons. With respect, I think Ed has *earned* those endorsements over the years.
Now, I think Ben Downing and Jonah Pesner are fantastic, and even as a Markey supporter, I would have happily promoted their campaigns’ materials as well. But they’re not running — an understandable choice. So that leaves us with Lynch, who is *not* fantastic. If you know someone better, by all means call ’em up and draft them in.
But I’d submit to you that if Elizabeth Warren had been elected to Congress 36 years ago, she’d have had a career that looks an awful lot like Ed Markey’s.