Scott Brown, the loathsome incumbent junior Senator from Massachusetts, is now running for reelection. He (horribly enough) won Ted Kennedy’s seat two years ago, when the Democratic Party in Massachusetts was too lazy to run a campaign, figuring that they’d win in any case.
The Massachusetts Democratic party was wrong.
Scott Brown won by being cute (he was a Playgirl model) and riding around in a pickup truck (which he’s doing again currently) and being ingenuous, and pretending to be very much a man of the people.
Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate in 2010, did absolutely nothing to campaign for herself. She was smug enough to believe that the legacy of Ted Kennedy was enough to win the seat for her, even if she did diddlysquat to earn it.
The Democratic Senatorial candidate this time, Elizabeth Warren, is not making that mistake. She is strong and smart and capable. She’s made a few missteps, but she’s a good person.
(I’m a Rhode Islander, so I’m not voting in that election. Our two Senators are firm and fervent Democrats. But we Rhode Islanders are deluged with Massachusetts political advertisements, so I speak from knowledge.)
In his adverts, Scott’s usually driving around (yet again!) in his pickup truck, talking to “regular folks.” He even shows images of himself with President Obama, portraying himself as a Republican who can compromise with the Democrats.
(Don’t you believe it. He voted with his party most of the time over the last two years.)
But here’s the thing that irritates me the most: he’s been running ads about the local fisheries industry, about how “government regulation” has been destroying the Massachusetts fishing industry, and that he’s been fighting to protect the fishermen.
Fact: the fisheries outlook in the North Atlantic is bleak at the moment, because the North Atlantic has been entirely overfished. The trademark fish of Massachusetts – including the sacred cod – are now endangered. There is now officially a fisheries “disaster” in the North Atlantic.
If you like cod and haddock and suchlike, prepare to pay a lot more for them, or switch to salmon and tilapia.
And if you’re a Scott Brown admirer, remember that things are never as simple as they seem in a political advertisement.
And for you Massachusetts readers: vote for Elizabeth Warren, kids. You’ll regret it if you don’t.
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