A bellwether cold-weather commonwealth

The race, which has
only been a real race for a number of days, is riveting to people in both
parties because it will tell so much about the state of anger toward
incumbents and of apathy in the Democratic Party. Should Brown pull this
off, and win in deep-blue Massachusetts, where registered Democrats outnumber
registered Republicans three to one, then the national party should fear the
worst.

Losing
Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat would be cataclysmic to the party, and would
portend staggering losses this fall in swing states and swing
districts. But the fact that Democrat Martha Coakley has had to call in
the cavalry like Bill Clinton for her rally on Friday, and screech into
Washington last night for a fundraiser one week out from Election Day,
says a lot even if she wins. This race shouldn’t be close, and the
national party shouldn’t have had to spend money to hold Kennedy’s seat.

If Brown wins
Tuesday’s special election in Massachusetts, it will surely be a sign of the
times. Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.), who ran against Coakley in the primary,
had two words for his House Democratic colleagues when he returned to Washington
at the end of last year: “You’re screwed.” And having Brown in the
U.S. Senate will deliver a special kind of first — he would become the only
U.S. senator ever to have posed nude in Cosmopolitan magazine.

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