The moment President Barack Obama knew Scott Brown would win...

[MohRokTah]

Martha Coakley is the worst candidate the Dems have ever put up for any office in Massachusetts.

[TuxedoKat]

1. What book is this from? (nt)

[MohRokTah]

2. Believer: My Forty Years in Politics

by David Axelrod

[TuxedoKat]

25. Thanks! (nt)

[guillaumeb]

3. nicely put Why is it that

even on the Democratic side, or at least on a nominally Democratic site, many commenters persist in repeating the fiction that President Obama had a majority for the first 2 years in office?

Given that there was only a filibuster proof majority for less than 1 month, and given the well documented meeting of a group of Republican Taliban (their words)that agreed to oppose any action that the President would take, how can anyone wonder about how relations went between President Obama and the Republicans?

Does everyone get their propaganda from Faux News?

[Fred Sanders]

4. The MSM often gets their propaganda from Fox, Fox is also a distributor for ISIL.

[guillaumeb]

7. When you say Fox as a distributor for ISIL

do you refer to the number 2 stockholder in Faux News? The royal from Saudi Arabia? The good friend of the Bush family? Our great ally and founders of Wahabbism? How can Americas allies in the fight against ISIL extremists also be the funders if ISIL?

Oh, the cognitive dissonance!

[Fred Sanders]

8. No. The fact only Fox posted and imbedded the entire Jordanian pilot execution..and ISIL thanks them.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/02/05/fox-news-tasteless-exploitation-of-isis-video/202427

[guillaumeb]

12. great point but I will add

that all of the corporate media loves violence porn. The only form of porn that the media can show on the evening news. Faux simply has even lower standards by showing snuff porn.

Have to love the Faux News motto though: "We distort, you divide". Or something like that.

[tblue37]

13. Since Lieberman was one of that 60, we never had a majority for health care reform at all.

Nor was he the only hold-out. Several other conservadems were sticking their feet out to trip the process up.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

19. I will never, EVER forget what happened because I and many others

in my precinct took on the opportunity to contact conservadems and hold outs. We were pushing for the public option. We called their offices every single day. We went up to Capitol Hill to schedule meetings, leaving letters and trying to get on committee hearing schedules.

This is why I get so angry at people who blame Obama because he asked us to do the work. Many of us did. Every single social and economic movement calls for action from the people. I will never forget how these senators turned us down. No matter how much we asked for a public option, they were too concerned about their political futures to care.

Again, never will I forget 2009 and what happened in 2010 when many Democrats stayed home, crossed over, or accepted defeat. We are now paying the price for Election 2010.

[tblue37]

24. + a million! nt

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

21. That's right. When I hear Democrats repeat these ignorant and fallacious

things, I want to rip my hair out! Worse, when you try and explain to them the math that Obama was working with--and the fact that the Democratic Party is NOT ideologically pure, they still won't listen. It's like these people are the equivalent of the Teabaggers.

[guillaumeb]

23. absolutely agree on your points

As to progress, now the pictures of racists confronting people who are asking for simple justice are in color.

[emulatorloo]

27. Some people just aren't interested in facts. They are too invested in the fallacious narrative

they've created in their heads. I share your frustration.

[msanthrope]

5. Coakley---Jeebus Christ what a disaster. nt

[sketchy]

6. Ah, the de rigueur shot at Martha Coakley

She was not the worst candidate, and damn near won.
No wonder a lot of good people pass on running for office -- to avoid the petty character assassination dished out by anonymous individuals on the Internet.

Pathetic.

[MohRokTah]

18. Losing by nearly 5 points is not "damn near won".

Brown took 51.9% of the vote, Coakley only got 47.1% of the vote.

That's nowhere near "damn near winning".

[Nye Bevan]

22. Yeah, to be fair, who the hell wants to stand outside Fenway Park shaking hands with people,

when you could be nice and warm meeting well-heeled donors at swanky fundraisers?

[bluestateguy]

9. I really wish all the these former WH would shut their traps

Is this some kind of rite of passage to write a kiss and tell book after doing your service?

Presidents should make their staff sign contracts: no book deals after you leave.

[Blue_Tires]

15. +1000

But FWIW after stepping down it is hard to turn down a million-dollar advance...

[DonViejo]

10. Have to disagree with this comment...

Martha Coakley is the worst candidate the Dems have ever put up for any office in Massachusetts.

She was elected and re-elected Attorney General of the Commonwealth. By all accounts, she was a good AG. For the gay community she was outstanding. BTW, her running mate for LTGov last election, was/is an openly gay man. Voters decided she was fine as AG but, no higher. Same thing happened to Frank Bellotti; great progressive AG but that popularity didn't transfer into getting him elected Gov.

At Attorney General Coakley’s direction, in 2009, Massachusetts became the first, and only, state in the nation to file a complaint alleging that DOMA violated the U.S. Constitution by disregarding Massachusetts marriages and interfering with a state’s sovereign authority to define and regulate the marital status of its residents. ( Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. U.S. Dep’t of Health & Human Services, et al. (2009) pdf format of Commonwealth of MA v. U.S. H.H.S. (2009)
) Together with the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), which filed a companion case on behalf of individual Massachusetts residents harmed by DOMA, AG Coakley argued before the U.S. District Court that there is no legitimate basis for DOMA and that it was an unjust and discriminatory law. AG Coakley’s office and GLAD presented the court a significant and undisputed factual record, including extensive expert testimony, in an effort to show that DOMA served no purpose other than to communicate disapproval of gay and lesbian people. The District Court decisions, issued on July 8, 2010, were the first in the country to hold DOMA unconstitutional.

http://www.mass.gov/ago/news-and-updates/initiatives/doma/

[Marrah_G]

14. SHe was a good attorney general

But a really shitty candidate for Sen or Gov.

She came across as if she could not care less during the race with Brown. I think she thought she didn't have to try, because she was the Democrat and this was Massachusetts.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

17. MAYBE I could understand that the first go around, but she STILL

was a horrible candidate for governor. I wish someone from MA could offer some insight because I simply don't get it.

[AtomicKitten]

20. She was mentioned in the movie "Conviction".

http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_16346515#16346515

I had no idea that her history in MA goes way back.

[SidDithers]

11. "Martha Coakely will win on Tuesday. Bank on it!"...

ranks right up there with "Turbo Tax has been hacked" and "Rove has been indicted".

Sid

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

16. And then they turn around and ran her fucking ass again! WHY??

Did Patrick not have any damn influence at all?

[bigwillq]

26. Coakley was a terrible candidate.

Maybe not the worse, but pretty bad. I knew she was going to lose too.