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- The big moment in last night's debate between Martha Coakley and Scott Brown for the Massachusetts special election was when Brown proclaimed that the open Senate seat is "not the Kennedy seat and it’s not the Democrat’s seat -- it’s the people’s seat." Well, sure. But it's worth looking at what the implications are for a Senate seat that has, but for the placeholder years of 1960-1962, been held by a Kennedy since 1953. Scott Brown understands the implications, or else he would not have cut a video last month that directly compared himself to JFK. I'm sure most conservatives believe corruption allowed the Kennedys to hold the seat for half a century, but popularity of the men elected certainly counts for something, which is why Brown needs to be malleable in his treatment of the Kennedy legacy.
- One of the motivating impulses of the tea party movement, as I understand it, is the sense that someone needs to take back government from the radicals and give it back to real Americans. I suspect the tea partiers also believe this sentiment is common amongst "ordinary Americans," which is why I'm confused as to why their first national convention, next month in Nashville, is going to be mostly closed to the press. I understand that the liberal media will distort their message, but how else are they going to bring attention to their cause? Or is this whole thing just a big wingnut pyramid scheme designed to rake in money from people who don't know any better?
- Despite not showing a very sophisticated understanding of how presidential approval ratings work, Ramesh Ponnuru's list of five reasons why Republicans shouldn't get their hopes up for the midterms is still quite accurate, if incomplete. The biggest missing piece is the fundraising picture, which I maintain is the most tangible expression of the GOP's disorganization, inability to capitalize on the grassroots/tea partiers, and their total lack of a legislative agenda. And the reason party leaders are calling to simply ignore Michael Steele is that firing him would only exacerbate all of these problems.
- Ben Smith goes a bit meta in a Politico story, observing the "virtual silence from the Clinton camp" over less than flattering revelations from the 2008 presidential campaign, wondering whether this could be the end of the "Clinton machine." On the one hand, I'd love if the lack of a Clinton machine to report on resulted in the press writing fewer stories about the Clintons. On the other hand, the vacuum would probably be filled by something even worse, so I'm somewhat torn.
- Remainders: DADT repeal makes progress with congressional Democrats; Facebook facilitates the transfer of some positive karma in the universe; Nate Silver has some fun statistics on gay marriage bans and divorce rates; and even if there were a demonstrable left-wing bias in sci-fi movies, is there any compelling reason as to why we should care in the first place?
--Mori Dinauer
