NEW!! PPP Poll have VERY GOOD news in the Massachusetts Senate race

[bigdarryl]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/evanmcsan/new-poll-shows-good-news-for-democrats-in-massachusetts-sena

[RBInMaine]

1. Good, but still a 7-point race. FAR from definite. Ed needs to CAMPAIGN LIKE HELL !

[MADem]

2. Ed' crew needs to KEEP RUNNING THIS AD

This ad is a "by his own words we know him" slam of the first order--it's gold:

[karynnj]

3. Excellent ad

There is something almost old fashioned in its simplicity and honesty.

It was interesting to read that Gomez was whining that it was unfair to blame him for Newtown (which no reasonable person would think it does) and to complain that it doesn't mention he would have been for the Toomey/Manchion background checks - which it simply is not about. Those comments suggest that he knows it is a direct hit,

I agree, Markey needs to keep playing this.

PS - I love that they labeled him REPUBLICAN - I wonder when he will complain about that!

[MADem]

4. Gomez's ad sucks. If I had to sum it up, it's like this....

Wheee, look at meeee. I was a SEAL!!! Don't I look nice in my uniform (pic of him in USN uniform--I ask myself "Why did he only make LT if he's such a hot shit?&quot ! I am a businessman, my parents were foreigner-immigrants, and I can recite the Pledge of Allegiance!!!! Liberty and justice for all, yeaaaaah...that's the ticket!!!!

I am glad the lead is opening up, but Markey needs to pound him with that ad, keep his other one running in reasonable rotation, AND GOTV like crazy.

[karynnj]

6. I love your recreation

Your point on just being a LT is interesting - how long was he in the Navy? (no matter the answer, it hurts him. If a very short time, then the fact that he talks about it constantly is pathetic - if it was long, why no more promotions?)

[MADem]

8. He was a frigging SEAL. They had superb promotion opportunity all the way up through 0-4.

It only got 'selective' at the 0-5 level; hell, SEALs don't grow on trees.

Everyone has a right to cash out and move along after fulfilling that service obligation, it's a volunteer military, but SEALs are a tight-knit bunch. They tend to stick if they work/play well with others. I mean, yeah, Bob Kerrey did three years as a SEAL, left as a LT, but he also left without half of a leg and with a Medal of Honor.

Near as I can tell, this guy has all his limbs and didn't see much if any combat. He went to the Naval Academy because he was a good TENNIS player--apparently he had a privileged upbringing, his parents were not poor, his daddy was a hops importer (!!!) with a master's from Stanford, he went to flight school, got wings, then transitioned to SEALS and got OUT in 96 after nine year in. This is odd, and honestly, a bit dilettantish for someone to do this and then NOT STAY IN. It almost smells like resume-padding to me. Either that, or he was just shown the door in a nice way--now that I think of it, that was the timeframe of The Great Drawdown--he might have been told (or just figured out) that he was in the lower end of his peer group and dropped his letter after a failure of selection (if anyone recalls the promotion flow point for SEALS during that timeframe, I'd be interested in hearing it--he may have been in zone or under consideration for promotion and didn't make it or knew he wouldn't).


No mention of Desert Shield/Storm in his biography--most people who were in that sandbox circus have a little "Been There" ribbon at least, and find it worth a mention. He was in the Caribbean and Peru and Bolivia for a bit, we do know that much. It's unclear if he was doing those joint training exercises we do with other nations' militaries down that way, or what (war games, basically). I kind of think that was his reason for being down that way but who knows: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/21/from-middle-class-beginnings-gomez-forged-unconventional-path/XQk3alB9AeKc7tg3yUB1SM/story.html

There's this odd suggestion floating around out there that his folks are from Cuba, but they aren't--they are Colombian. And he's from the west coast (born in Los Angeles and raised in WA state), not the Commonwealth. And he's "decorated" but I'm not at all clear what his "decorations" are--and if they were "good" ones (the kind that include Ye Olde Combat V-for-Valor) you'd think he'd MENTION it.

There's some stuff here: http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-gabriel-gomez-20130430

All it does is make me wonder what he's not saying. I really don't like him flogging his "military service" in "dangerous assignments" like...St. Kitts, and displaying his SEAL pin like he's Joe Cool--to me, that's just unseemly...and it's really unseemly when there's no evidence of a war record. Generally, I've found, the bigger the war record, the less the public figure has anything to "prove" so they don't run around wearing flight jackets and military ball caps and designator pins.

The bit, too, about "Connections to Team Romney" is enough for me to say "Ugh! Begone!"

Maybe I'm being harsh, but when I see that guy, I smell bullshit.

[Jim Lane]

5. Sorry to be a killjoy, but I'm disappointed. Markey should be up by much more. (n/t)

[MADem]

9. Seven beats FOUR--and that's what it was a week ago.

The trajectory is right. Markey is not a good speaker, he's old and he looks tired. What he does have going for him is a damned good record. He just needs to make the people outside his district aware of his good record. He is doing that through simple and effective ads that are well placed.

Gomez sounds glib and charming, but when he opens his mouth, he says stupid things, like "I don't want an assault weapons ban" and "Let those guns fire as many bullets as you'd like" and that goes over like a glass of turd juice in the Bay State.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

7. I'm not happy. It's still too close and June is a long, long time from now. :(