Mayhem for Mass. pols up north
Warren, Patrick and – yeah, we see you, Bill Weld – stumble badly in N.H.
It’s the day Bay State Republicans have been waiting for: a Massachusetts massacre in New Hampshire.
For years, we’ve suffered through partisan pundits fawning over the “amazing political talents” of Deval Patrick and Elizabeth Warren. Warren’s a “political rock star!” There was even a “Draft Warren” movement for the 2016 campaign, when she’d been in the U.S. Senate for less than a full “Obama” — political slang for half a Senate term.
And Deval? He’s “electrifying! Have you heard him speak? He can really set a room on fire!”
And yet when the New Hampshire primary rolled around, the only thing Patrick had burned through were a couple million dollars in campaign donations. Warren, who was scheduled for a Battle Royale with Bernie Sanders for the title “New Hampshire Champ” was stuck in the second tier. She’s not quite in Marianne Williamson territory, but she can see it from her campaign HQ.
And I’m absolutely loving it!
Of course Warren and Patrick
are lousy at running for president. When have they been good at running for anything? They’ve got the cushiest gig in American politics — running as liberal Democrats in the deep-blue state of Massachusetts.
Oh, please: Don’t give me that Warren hogwash about “I beat an incumbent Republican!” She beat Scott Brown, a great guy but a political fluke, in a state that hadn’t elected a GOP U.S. Senator in a general election since 1972.
Yes, Massachusetts has elected some (allegedly) Republican governors, but with the glaring exception of Mitt Romney, not one of them would be out of place in the Democratic Party. And speaking of Bill Weld … The greatest moment of the “First in the Nation” campaign for Massachusetts’ Republicans was when Deval was speaking to a nearly empty group of clearly uninspired Democrats. When he opened the floor for questions, a member of the small audience piped up. Who was it?
Bill Weld.
A loser Massachusetts governor campaigning for the vote of another Massachusetts loser — who’s running in the same race — may be the most “Massachusetts Pol Runs for POTUS” moment evah!
Since JFK, a litany of Bay
State Democrats have made bids for the White House: Ted Kennedy, Paul Tsongas, Mike Dukakis, John Kerry, Seth Moulton. Throw in Republican Mitt Romney, and what do they all have in common?
Hint: You won’t be visiting their presidential libraries.
Now we’ve got two of the most pompous, self-important Massachusetts pols in modern history both finishing out of the running, in a neighboring state, on the same night?
I’m so thrilled, I think I’m gonna get me a beer. AND a chardonnay.