As I mentioned in a previous post, the special election has left me feeling uninspired in some ways. However, this Globe article published a short while ago grabbed my attention.
For Gomez, it’s not in a good way.
As I see it, the article highlights two major things (still) fundamentally wrong with his campaign.
1. The continued, utter crap about Markey’s supposed lack of productivity in his 37 years in Congress. Does Gomez not know that there are these magical places on the internet where people can verify the truth of these claims? I would say that of course he knows that, and that he’s just banking on voter ignorance, except–as even noted by some staunchly conservative pundits here locally–he received a verbal beat-down in the first debate on this very topic by Markey, himself. On live TV. For all to see. And replay over and over again. Yet, as the Globe article details, he continues in this vein, apparently not realizing that he’s still fighting an already lost battle. “I would get more done in 17 months than he’s done in 37 years,” he said. This stuff is absurd on its face (and absurdly arrogant, too), and the only people who don’t seem to realize this are Gomez and his campaign advisers.
2. We still don’t know what Gomez stands for–or if he stands for anything. A Democrat from Wellesley interviewed for the article says it best, “I don’t know what he stands for. I don’t like what the Republicans stand for.” And I suppose it’s easy for the Democrat from Wellesley or I to dismiss him out of hand like that, but just look at the Issues page on his campaign website, where he details his positions on most issues in only a few, vague, flimsy lines. It’s one thing to try to fit in the mold of a Moderate Massachusetts Republican; it’s quite another to be The Guy With No Real Core. Gomez is much more the latter guy than the former.
. . . But the Gomez campaign will have you believe that everything is going according to plan. They insist that he has a message, that it’s resonating with voters, and that he’ll pull off an upset victory come Tuesday. But a truly confident candidate–one who trusts that an electorate knows him inside and out–doesn’t wear his own campaign t-shirt to an event with three days to go:
(twitter: @BillTaylor2)
And Romney prepared a victory speech.
There is so little enthusiasm for Gomez, even among Republicans. I can’t help but wondering if the Mass GOP is having buyer’s remorse and might look at this now as an opportunity lost for statewide exposure for Dan Winslow, or at least a missed chance to have unified support, albeit with very little Demcratic or independent crossover, for Mike Sullivan.
Instead, they’ve found the most un-impressive Navy SEAL imaginable.
Shallow. One who lacks the courage of political conviction and who makes money the old fashioned (shady) way, off of money itself and not out of anything productive or innovative. You think the Navy SEAL card didn’t deliver that job, either?
“But daddy, I WANT a Navy SEAL,” Veruca, the Massachusetts Republican said.
And can we do away with the fiction that an investment by a pension system equals an endorsement. Please.
at a cookout. We’ve got over a hundred KNOCKING ON DOORS over here where I live.
Gomez’ claim that Markey is running a negative campaign “out of desperation” is kind of funny given that Gomez’ central claim is that Markey has done nothing and he will do “something”. The “something” is undefined. How he is going to accomplish the “something” is undefined. Why anyone would want the “something” is undefined.
So the main thrust is negative because it’s the only thing that’s concrete.
That negative message: Markey is so bad that an incompetent braggart like me would be an improvement.
Gomez’s events yesterday – four days before Election Day – as reported by WBUR:
Gomez’s campaign stop in Gloucester mustered five – count ’em, five! – attendees. Four days before Election Day. Gomezmentum!
Of course, news of Gomez’s sparsely attended events just four days before Election Day should not change your plans to help Markey’s GOTV. But it will be fascinating to hear Gomez’s campaign staff explain this shocking lack of energy just days out.
“Gabriel Gomez: Just what was his pitch again?“