BROOKLINE — Beneath a steady Sunday afternoon drizzle, Julie and Michael Rafferty pile into their blue Honda Civic, she at the wheel, he riding shotgun, a clipboard between them.
The target set by Elizabeth Warren’s campaign: Make 60 get-out-the-vote visits in a single afternoon. Ambitious, but doable. Less a sales pitch than a pop quiz, each visit is intended to assess support for Warren, or her opponent, Scott Brown.
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<<“We just lack the number of bodies that the Democrats have because of the registration disadvantage,’’ said Rob Gray, a veteran Republican strategist. >>
Actually a very significant part of the "Democrat army" for the Warren campaign are Independents. In fact, we could not do it without them. What we do have as an advantage is a candidate. The Scott Brown campaign is so negative, so lacking in any real statement of a benefit that they bring, I can imagine that it's demoralizing. As you can even see in the comments here none of his supporters know how to do anything but use Brown's false attack lines. When the candidate has nothing to say for himself in the past or the future, neither will his supporters.
Democrats have had these problems in the past too and then have lost. Brown is going to lose because he lacks a coherent policy. This lack and the attack's attract a certain element that actually discredits him and drives voters to Warren. The details of the polls also confirm this. Brown and his supporters who follow his mean shallowness turn people off, including themselves.
"What we do have as an advantage is a candidate." If that were an accurate statement, Warren would be ahead in the polls - 65% to 35%. In fact, Warren is perhaps the worst candidate that the Democrats have ever fielded in its history for a statewide office and that's why she's barely ahead. In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 3 to 1 margin, Warren has a higher unfavorable rating than Brown. And when it comes to the unenrolled voter, character is a huge issue and Warren clearly does not have a stranglehold on the 'character issue'. She will probably win because so many of Mass residents vote strictly upon their party affiliation and not on who will best represent, in this case, the 65% of the residents who aren't Democrats. While Brown maybe somewhat deceptive, Warren is far more deceptive and quite frankly, a total fraud.
Brown up to now has been a reasonable, moderate Senator. Not perfect, maybe, but representative of the working people, the military, and the business sector, if not of the elite intellectual elements in Cambridge and Amherst.
So what has Prof. Warren accomplished, other than teaching a law class for $350,000 a year and making fiery speeches and passing herself off as a "woman of color"? Zero, that's what. If the people of Massachusetts throw Brown out and put this talking head into the Senate, it will only further marginalize our influence in the national government; she will vote the party line, hewing to the most far left, socialistic and anti-business stance, and will be a problem maker instead of a problem solver.
"We just lack the number of bodies that the Democrats have because of the registration disadvantage,’’ said Rob Gray, a veteran Republican strategist. “We don’t have the major assets the Democrats have, such as unions and an elected infrastructure that includes the aides and interns who work in the political offices and are willing to make phone calls and knock on doors because their bosses want them to and they want to advance their careers.’’
Spoken like a true Republican. They just make their employees donate MONEY to keep their jobs.
Spoken like a true Democrat. They just twist the facts to fit their narrow view of things.
Blisterpeanuts - be specific. Which facts have we twisted? The most massive volunteer political effort in post WWII history, larger than the Kennedy's is a fact. You will soon feel it.
The Republicans have no coherent policy statement and nothing for their rank and file to argue with. The Republican base is reduced to hurling back empty pies of offal as you do.
We need another far left ideologue in the Senate like we need a hole in the head. Clearly, a lot of people will vote for the Democratic candidate reflexively, with no thought as to what effects it might have on the country. But the effects will be severe. Warren has demonstrated no particular ability to compromise with the opposition; quite the opposite, she engages in the worst kind of pandering to people's anti-business leanings to get their votes. Once in office, she will be nothing but a gadfly who will accomplish little.
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The cardinal rule of politics is to stay in touch with one's base. One does, of course, need to appeal beyond it, but one must never lose touch with it. A second rule is to organize deeply. People matter more than money. If Brown loses, and that is a big if as he still remains by far the more likable of the two candidates, it will be because he has striven unwisely to present himself too much as the Senator from Planned Parenthood and not enough as the Senator from KickAss. People are angry and want change, Senator. They could care less about bi-partisan cooperation with a corrupt system.
The voters want a candidate that can collaborate with people with different views: also the voters want candidates who do not come across like a Jack-ass, waving their hands while repeating their own rhetoric. Students notice that many professors behave in this manner.
Voters need a senator like Scott Brown. Warren is embarrassing - too much like a union hit-man.
Cantabrigian01 Think you got enough colorfull name calling in there? Colorful, but signifying nothing.
A talking Jack-ass waving its hands --just like many a professor, all of whom, of course, are hit-men.
It is very pathetic to observe the MA Democrats support for Warren & Tierney: both candidates are inferior to their competition. The same can be said about the young Kennedy running in the South.
Earlier 'Blisterpants' made a very accurate comments: Warren, "will be a problem maker instead of a problem solver."
It depends upon whether your perspective is as one of the 99% or of the 1%.
Article fails to mention that Brown campaign is paying students to go door-to-door. It had nothing going on on campuses while Warren campaign was engaging students in the campaign and in Massachusetts that's a big thing.
The article fails to mention that Warren needs to attract only 27.5% of the unenrolled voters in the state that account for 52% of all registered voters in order to attain more than 50% of the total vote. She will be hard-pressed to do so because she is such an unattractive candidate to the majority of the unenrolled voters. Were it not for the unwavering support of the public workers unions and the trades unions, she would be lucky to be a legit player in this race. She should be at 65% in the polls with the known party affiliations in this state and she ain't even close to that number. Character matters!!!
My home is clearly posted 'No Soliciting' but I still get Warren propaganda piled at my door from these pushy people.
Political speech is not soliciting. Soliciting is commercial speech. They are doing nothing illegal or even wrong.
It's bad enough to have to deal with robocalls. I don't want someone coming to my house asking me how I plan to vote. It's called a secret ballot for a reason.
Notice how we learn early on they drive a Civic. Make of that what you will. As a Globe reader you might say, "Oh, they're like me, driving a green friendly car."
I see old people too broke to own a decent car.
These door-to-door Democrats first ask, "Have you heard how Obama betrayed the Americans being attacked in Benghzi?"
If the answer is, "No," then they realize they have a live one, another Globe reader, and thus a Democrat. Then they tell him to make sure he goes to vote at least once, and that point he asks if Liz W. is going to get him a job on the T.
If you want conservatives in charge of the Senate, conservatives on the Supreme Court, and a Senator in the pocket of the finance industry, vote Brown. If you want true independence and someone to fight for you and me, vote Warren.
Warren an Independent, are you serious? She has towed the party platform throughout this race. She will vote 100% of the time with the Democrats. Kate, you obviously haven't been paying attention, have you?
@jim1751: Brown is a Republican who votes with Republicans when it matters. Republican-appointees on the Supreme Court, a Republican-controlled Senate, is what you get if you vote Republican. Warren is an independant thinker who will owe her win to voters--not to corporate donors and the finance industry.
It's pretty simple. As liberal as this state is, and being the hand-picked Dem candidate, why is this a tight race? All the evidence of Warren's fairy tale past being a sham is having an effect on voters. Oversaw TARP ... but wouldn't give an accounting of how they spent $10 million, even got her salary wrong for a while (understating it of course). White until 38 years old and looking to get an Ivy league position, then a minority, then white again after getting tenure. Her cover story, that she listed herself to 'meet others like me' doesn't hold water, there is no place in the Directory for 'Native American', just a big old check mark for Minority. And that is how it was used, as a tool for recruiters to find minority candidates ( or at least candidates that would give them cover as having a properly diversified staff to satisfy EEOC, if you don't mind submitting falsified reports ).
How did this stop being about me? I'm the guy with the clipboard riding shotgun.