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Coakley Pollster Defends Campaign Against White House
The blame game is fully underway. A top pollster to Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley told HuffPost on Tuesday that the White House, in attempting to blame the Coakley campaign for a potential defeat today in Massachusetts, underestimates the wave of populist fury among Massachusetts voters.
Pollster Celinda Lake said Coakley was hampered by the failure of the White House and Congress to confront Wall Street. That failure, she said, means that Democrats are being blamed by angry independent voters worried about the state of the economy.
"If Scott Brown wins tonight he'll win because he became the change-oriented candidate. Voters are still voting for the change they voted for in 2008, but they want to see it. And right now they think they've got economic policies for Washington that are delivering more for banks than Main Street."
Asked about reported criticism from White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Lake said she had seen the stories. "I think it's a circling squad to protect the White House. I don't think it's very useful," she said, mixing a metaphor while getting across a clear message.
Lake said that the problem for Democrats is that voters are blaming them for the nation's poor economic conditions. "2010 is fast turning out to be a blame election and I think that either we are going to characterize who deserves the blame - whether that's banks and lobbyists and people who still want to hold on to national Republican economic strategies - or we're going to get the blame. And that's a very different tone than, often, the administration is comfortable with," she said.
The feeling among voters, said Lake, is that Washington prioritizes Wall Street over Main Street and that, despite Coakley's credentials as a state attorney general who has taken on and beaten Wall Street banks, sending her to Washington would not make a difference. "On the eve of the election, Martha Coakley had a 21-point advantage over Scott Brown on who would fight Wall Street and deliver for Main Street. But it didn't predict to the vote, because voters thought, even if they sent her down here that it wouldn't happen. 'Fine, she had done it in Massachusetts, but no one was doing it in Washington,'" Lake said. "Voters are voting for change and we have to go back to that change message. And we have to deliver on change, especially an economic policy that serves working people."
Lake pointed to polling released by the Economic Policy Institute showing that 65 percent of Americans though the stimulus served banks interests, 56 percent thought it served corporations and only ten percent that it benefited them. "That is a formula for failure for the Democrats. We have to deliver on economic policies that take on Wall Street and we have to do it for five months, not just five days. We really have to deliver on the policies," she said.
The tit-for-tat over tactics, said Lake, risks missing the wave that is headed toward Democrats. "There's a lot of blame to go around, but the point of the matter is there's a wave. And that wave: it hit Virginia; it hit New Jersey; it hit Massachusetts," she said.
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17 Comments so far
Show AllIn the last year the Democrats savaged the Democratic wing of their party.
What did they do with the banks? They handed out the billions like Halloween candy. How does this play in the mill towns?
What did they do with unemployment? Instead of directly giving the bailout money to the American people, who would have immediately stimulated the economy by spending the cash on things such as food, they gave the money to ne'er do wells who bought up other companies with the loot. Unemployment soared.
What did they do with the war that hemorrhages trillions and props up a heroin cartel? They called for another surge.
Oh, and health care. They took the world's laughingstock system and turned into a big pharma and insurance company boondoggle.
Blame Martha Coakley if it's fun.
The Democrats have been savaging their base for a lot longer than one year. By now it's become high art. The last brushstroke will be when they merge with the Republican Party.
Right on Ted and Paul...irrespective of Coakley's populist past, anybody not suffering serious denial syndrome realizes that Rahm would have veal penned her (or any Democrat)and made her drink his kool-aid the minute she arrived in DC.
If Brown can win in Massachusetts, Palin can win the white house in 2012 as long as she is OK with taking the pay cut leaving FOX would entail.
Hey hey!
Ho! Ho!
the banksters got to go.
Hey! Hey!
We know!
Timmy G's rich man's ho!
.
Seriously, Obama would need a new Treasury Sec'y to even appear to carry the populist mantle.
And how else can the Dems harness the fire?
They must:
1. Stop the US war in the middle east. Withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan beginning today!
2. Agressively push single payer health care paid for by war savings.
3. Increase Obama's proposed bank tax and institute per transaction fee on stock trades, commodity futures etc.
4. Claw back the bankster bonuses! They must pay for their failures; instead they are rewarded by the leadership of BOTH parties. The initial defeat of the bailout in the House in 2008 was a bi-partisan rank and file action, a revolt of the backbenchers, if you will. But there is no anti-bankster (populist) party leadership. After today that may change.
5. End the torture state and dismantle the CIA and Xe, aka BlackWater.
And now I think I'll dream about riding with my wild herd of flying pigs.
Anything can happen, right?
4.
Dear Mr. President et al
Like your predecessor you squandered your opportunity to help people.
Stay out of the soup kitchens. Work with the power you have for the next 3 years.
Do not allow the Repubs and Blue Dogs to rule you. Stop being a corporate shill.
Freedom!
The eviction notices are on their way to Congressman and Senators from both sides. Do you want to bet that the next piece of legislation that gets passed will be for unemployment benefits for Congressman and Senators who are voted out of office!
Unfortunately they already have it.
I was a life-long Republican who switched parties in 2008, after FINALLY seeing what corrupt Republican politics did to our country. I was a volunteer leader in my community doing everything that I could to help elect this man. I fought for a public health care insurance option, and for jobs,so that our citizens did not all have to work at Walmart.
I cannot believe that all of the energy and momentum that we had coming out of the election has been squandered. Why did Obama waste all this precious time trying to compromise with these Republicans? I clearly remember Obama saying during the election that "we cannot afford to wait". So why did HE wait? And why do we need 60 votes? Did Bush need 60 votes to get his agenda passed? My fear that the Republicans would eventually get their way appears to be coming true.
While I would NEVER support a Republican candidate, right now I am pretty disgusted by what I am seeing from the ineffective Democrats. I also have a sickening feeling in my stomach that perhaps some of you are right who claim that maybe Obama is just "Bush Light".
Yeah, it sucks coming to political awareness at this time. You feel nothing but betrayal and helplessness. But at least you're awake, which is much more than most other Americans can truthfully claim.
Perhaps you can channel the energy you had before into your local community. You can do far more good locally than you can nationally...and what's local affects you far more.
zmann--great advice
Thanks for the good advice.
Good luck, organizing isn't easy. I did it once on campus and realized it's not for me.
"Pollster Celinda Lake said Coakley was hampered by the failure of the White House and Congress to confront Wall Street. That failure, she said, means that Democrats are being blamed by angry independent voters worried about the state of the economy."
Most of us in Massachusetts know that the Republicans, and 8 miserable years of George W. Bush, brought us to the brink of collapse; but that was after Bill Clinton paved the way by signing the death warrant for Glass-Steagall and got us into trade agreements that will destroy the lives of millions Americans for decades to come unless Wall Street and its Federal Reserve brethren are brought under control.
Celinda Lake, for the most part, is correct. The people in this state are totally BS that the Democrats have done nothing to hold Wall Street Banksters/Hedge Funders/Rating Agencies etc., accountable for the massive fraud that has taken place against citizens in this state and around the country. And yes, many of them who voted for Obama will blame Democrats for betraying them after endless statements were made about bringing back government transparency and cleaning up the $hit on Wall Street - neither of which has happened or appears to be heading in that direction.
Sadly, many of them believe that Scott Brown is going to Lobbyist Hill to make the changes we need to get the country back on its feet and people back to work. Good luck!
On the bright side, Massachusetts still has Martha Coakley as Attorneys General, where she can continue to go after and win cases against the corrupt scum on Wall Street.
Barney (bankster-loving) Frank will be another Democrat in Massachusetts who loses in the next election.
Obama promised change, and delivered politics as usual. He needs to ditch Raim and the rest of the Chicago crew, and start taking some uncompromised and principled action, or he will go down in history as simply being "America's One-Term Black President"...and nothing more.
The Coakley crowd can play the blame game all they want, but it doesn't confront the real issue. They ran a lackluster and ineffective campaign. They were so filled with arrogance and hubris after the primary, they didn't think they had to work to earn a victory in the general election. They got complacent, and Brown cleaned their clock.
Instead of looking for someone to blame, their time would be better spent taking responsibility.
It was Bush who steamrolled the bailout to banks and the too-big-too-fail industry, not Obama, but such is the misinformation of our times.
Actually, prior to his inaugeration, at the same time he was avoiding having to take a position on Gaza, claiming that "we only have one president at a time" he was admonishing D house members balking about voting for the bailout. I will never forget the jackass up there demanding that they all line up...