NY Times Dismisses Brown-Coakley Vote As Popularity Contest…
Posted by steven_spear | Under Innovation, health care, high velocity organizations, organizational learning, process excellence Tuesday Jan 26, 2010It would be a terrible mistake for Democrats to abandon comprehensive health care reform just because voters in the Massachusetts Senate race last week decided that they liked the Republican, Scott Brown, more than the Democrat, Martha Coakley.
– “Don’t Give Up,” NY Times, January 26, 2010
Does the NY Times think we had a popularity contest last week? This is Massachusetts, birth place of liberty, not 90210. Gee whiz!
Maybe it is a Red Sox Yankee thing, but the Gray Lady is incredibly dismissive of the Massachusetts electorate and its ability to vote on the issues and not the campaign fluff it it thinks Scott Brown’s victory was anything but a referendum on Obama Care and Capital HIll policies more generally.
Let’s be clear. This was a referendum.
The Times also says:
Many panicky Democrats see Mr. Brown’s win as proof that angry voters will punish them in November if they press ahead with reform. We believe that is a misreading of what happened and what’s possible.
Those Democrats are right and the Times is wrong. Proof? I was in NYC the day after the vote, and when people on the subway saw my Red Sox cap, they gave me a thumbs up and said “Thanks!”
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