Election Day in Massachusetts

McClatchy Newspapers company reports today in my local paper that Democratic strategists have put out the word over the week-end that they expect the Democratic candidate, Martha Coakley, to lose in today's special election to replace the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Of course, we can hope that the strategists are wrong and there will be a late surge as voters weigh carefully what a Republican win in Massachusetts would mean.



But absent such a last-minute development, how in God's name could the Democratic Party manage to lose a Senate race in over-whelmingly Democratic Massachusetts? If the Democratic candidate does lose it is a tremendous repudiation of the way the Democratic Party is being led.



Voters in Massachusetts are complaining about a Democratic candidate (Coakley) who is remote and seemingly smug. So, to cut to the chase, what kind of political process would bring such a person to the fore, assuming the crticisms are accurate?



For any Massachetts voters who are still undecided, I ask you to consider carefully your vote. Are we going to continue with a broken health care system? Are we going back to the days of bail-outs for Wall Street, of high budget and trade deficits, of disdain for the poor and the middle class -- all features brought to us by the Republican Party? And make no mistake, Brown is a far-righter who would vote for the most regressive kinds of policies and against the interests of the every-day working person of this country.



If the Democrats do lose the Kennedy seat, I call for the resignation of the head of the Democratic National Committee at a minimum, and the installation of a person who can set a new tone, something different from policies of remoteness and smugness.