Martha: One Blunder Too Many

If health insurance fails, and especially if in addition to that Obama’s presidency fails, it might simply be because Martha Coakley knows nothing about baseball.

This requires an explanation: the seat of the legendary Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, who passed away last year, will be assigned on Tuesday, Jan 19, following special elections. Only two months ago, the entire political class was convinced that Democrat Martha Coakley, former attorney general and secretary of justice revered in that state, would win by an outstanding majority. However, today she risks losing to Republican Scott Brown. This would be the Democrats’ first loss in 40 years in a senatorial race in the legendary stronghold of the Kennedys. Why?

Martha Coakley made the mistake of saying during a radio show that Curt Shilling, local Red Sox legend, was also a fan of the New York Yankees. This happens to be false. Shilling, on the other hand, is a die-hard Republican and can now be heard on the radio constantly repeating that this blunder from Coakley shows her lack of sports culture and the fact that she stands removed, as part of the elite, from the good people of Massachusetts.

This isn’t a joke. The Democrat is really paying the price of an eruption of populism stirred up last summer by Republicans who are against the government bailout of banks and, here we must pinch ourselves, from the health care reform that would destroy freedom and kill the budget.

A defeat on the part of Coakley would have terrible consequences: it would deprive Democrats of a 60 seat majority in the Senate, which is necessary to avoid a freeze of the debates by the opposition and to guarantee the reform of the health care system. One should not be surprised that Barack Obama himself came to Coakley’s rescue this past weekend, and that all the major Republican contributors, attracted by the smell of blood, rushed to support Brown. A race long described as only a formality by Democrats turned into a stake at the national level and for Republicans, a taste of what is to come in the November elections, one of many dangers for Barack Obama.