Reply #2: I think your concerns are well thought out and very real [View All]

While it goes without saying that she is a woman of real substance, she has never ran for election. In addition, the only "face" any of us have seen is her doing an excellent job advocating for the consumer bureau, setting it up, and other highly technical jobs relating to Finance and economics. I saw some of the BMG threads yesterday - and Petr, who seems very thoughtful in all his posts -seemed to be saying some of the same things.

I agree with your Coakley analogy, but the one thing that might make a difference is that (I think unlike Coakley), she has an energized left wing base behind her. If Coakley would have had that energy and money behind her, I wonder if her campaign would have faltered. But, though he had run for Governor 5 times, Howard Dean shows you can't depend on just the left support -no matter how strong it is.

In the Dean case, the left latched onto a moderate governor of Vt, saw him as what they wanted to see, and while they created huge excitement on the left - his support, even with more money and more mainstream endorsements, hit a ceiling that prevented him from even coming close to winning the nomination. Mythology ignored, the reality is that in Iowa's retail politics, he got only 18%, while Kerry got 38%. This, especially as they spent a fantastic amount, - not the scream - ended Dean's real chances.

I think the primary will be interesting and -again, wish it were mush earlier. One fear would be that at least one of her opponents will push the obvious issue - that she is the choice of powers on high or push the idiotic issue that she is not from Massachusetts. Brown would then have the advantage of seeming to just be repeating something others said.

I wonder though if Brown really is as much the "natural" as is assumed. He has some flaws that could be seen over a longer time. I can't imagine how he could continue to not answer basic questions - ever. Not to voters and not even to sympathetic reporters. I would say that I don't know how the press could cover his less than admirable bad temper, but that would be ignoring that they covered for Bush for years.

I think the best hope is that when the Democrats have a nominee, he or she is seen as a credible, competent representative of MA. Then the general election could be turned into a referendum of whether they want Mitch McConnell controlling the Senate -not whothey think it would be more fun to have a beer with.