I wrote a few days ago that Martha Coakley was likely to lose, particularly if the Democratic Base did not show up. I was partially right, she was likely to lose. Some of the loss is no doubt due to one of the most inept campaigns ever put on for a US Senate race. However, it is impossible to ignore the fact that some of this loss is due to things that Obama and the Democrats as a whole are doing or not doing.
The administration appears out of touch with the people of this country. Its all the more amazing that this is so considering they have one of the best communicators in the history of this country as one of their assets in President Obama. Why the administration hasn't had him out doing a modern retread of fireside chats on at least a semi-weekly basis is incomprehensible to me. It's too late to do something like that right now, it would be seen as a desperation move, but something has to be done immediately.
According to one of my mentors, Chet Whye, the administration has 60 days to turn this thing around or we get blown out in the midterm elections and possibly beyond. I think Chet is right. I'm sure the administration is hunkered down right now trying to figure out how things went south so quickly. Hopefully they will figure that out, and come up with a plan to fix things, because what Massachusetts tells us is that not only have we Democrats lost the middle, we are well on our way to completely losing our own base.
Chet, who runs the Harlem4 organization in Manhattan ruefully points out that even when talking with fellow African Americans about Obama, when they used to say "I'm so glad he is our President!" they now say, "I'm glad he's our President, but"". That is how bad things are right now. For the first African American President to start down the road to losing the African American community, that's unfathomably bad.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
